Catastrophe
by Kelsey
Summary: Instead of the S5 finale happening, there was an earthquake that destroyed Sunnydale. Buffy and Dawn need help, and get it from an unlikely source. Canon to 'The Weight of the World', AU post, S/B
1. Chapter One

****

Catastrophe

by

[Princess McPhee][1]

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')

Rating: PG, so far.

> Spike was gone, fetching his sire and any man, or demon, power that he could to help fight Glory when the catastrophe hit. It wasn't until hours after the battle occurred that he made his return to Sunnydale, only to find the area decimated. 
> 
> And all for naught. He hadn't found Angel, or any of his crowd. He didn't have any idea where they were, but knowing his crowd, probably off on some weird mission in another dimension. But Spike didn't have time for the problems of another dimension. He and the Slayerettes had their own.
> 
> It was when his car grew close, and Spike's sensitive vampiric nostrils detected the faint trail of smoke that he grew worried. Buffy was unsure about her ability to defeat Glory, but Spike had been certain that the Slayerettes had the brains, if not the brawn, to defeat 'The Beast'. 
> 
> His thoughts to and from Los Angeles had been mostly of Dawn. Man, that girl had it rough. Teenage angst, and being the Slayer's sister wasn't enough, now she had to find out that she wasn't real, and that a demon-god wanted to kill her, and create a hell on earth. He knew he was supposed to despise humans, but he couldn't help it. He'd grown fond of the Slayer's baby sis.
> 
> The hundred-some-odd year old vampire put his foot to the floor, and held it there. The perfectly nice, but apparently without great acceleration capabilities car that he'd borrowed from Xander sputtered, but picked up a faster pace willing enough. Spike took the corners like a race car driver, earning several shouted obscenities from the windows of passing cars in his haste to reach the Hellmouth.
> 
> When he pulled into the outskirts of Sunnydale, Spike could have sworn his heart beat once at the pure terror that coursed through his undead body. Sunnydale truly looked like a Hellmouth.
> 
> Where Spike was at, buildings were toppled, but it only looked like a huge trash-pile. He couldn't navigate the car through it, so instead, he jumped out and climbed on top of the highest pile of junk for a better view. His chosen heap of rubble didn't appear extremely stable, but he didn't fear falling. After all, there were some perks to being a vampire, even one with a chip in his head.
> 
> It was night, of course, and he ordinarily he wouldn't have been able to see very far. But now, from his vantage point, Spike could see that the dull glow in the sky was in fact a bright yellowish-orange color, and it emanated from numerous large fires spread amongst the city.
> 
> There was a faint rush of air, and the crackle of the wild-burning flames, but all else was silent. He supposed that someone, somewhere had to have figured it out, and sent help, but Sunnydale, for all its appearance as a normal suburban southern California town, was nearly an hour from the nearest town.
> 
> When Spike jumped off the heap of rubble, he noticed a large crack in the earth. _So_, he thought, _that's what did it. An earthquake_. But it must have been supernatural, or other cities would have felt it, and there would have been rescue helicopters and other forces here hours ago.
> 
> The first thought on Spike's mind after he took all this in, was the Scoobies. Spike couldn't really call them his friends, but they were the closest thing that he had. And he was still madly in love with Buffy, despite her utter rejection. None of them were too bad, and Spike had a genuine fondness for Dawn.
> 
> Cursing, Spike sprinted for Xander's car, grabbed anything that he thought might be of use, and headed into the blazing city. A blanket, all the water he could find, the first aid kit, some ropes and a fire extinguisher ranked among the supplies cradled in the vampire's arms, and for once, he was truly glad he was a demon.
> 
> He wondered where to go first, and then decided that he'd just work through the Scoobies' usual locales in the order he came upon them. The first place he ran into was the Summers' house.
> 
> Not really expecting anyone, it was only nine-thirty at night, and Buffy and her crew would have been out, he just the same, kicked in the door, and yelled. "Buffy! Niblet, can you hear me?"
> 
> He would have ventured inside to check and see if either of them was unconscious, but it wasn't possible. His invite had been revoked, and there was no one home to invite him in now. He cursed again, and decided that they probably weren't there, anyway.
> 
> Next up was Giles' place, and then Xander and Anya's. Neither of them yielded anyone who could speak, but Spike wasn't too surprised. He was willing to bet he'd find most of them at the magic shop, where they'd most likely been looking for more information about Glory.
> 
> As Spike loped nearer to the Magic Box, he sucked in a deep breath he didn't need at the sight, and immediately started to cough and spit. The smoke was thick in this area, although Giles' eccentric little shop wasn't actually on fire. Yet.
> 
> The vampire straightened up from where he'd doubled over, gasping, and headed fearlessly into what was left of the store. What he saw shocked him.
> 
> The Scoobies were there, all right. But if any of them had survived, he would be amazed. 
> 
> Forcing himself to be objective, while his inner self was meanwhile screaming to him to find Buffy and Dawn, Spike started from the people closest to the door, and made a quick, impersonal exam of each of them.
> 
> Closest to the door was Willow's limp body, a long, deep, bloody gash evident on her head. Beside her, lay the piece of concrete from the roof that had obviously hit her. Spike suspected that she'd been hit first, or at least quickly, because if not, her magical expertise could easily have been put to use creating a barrier.
> 
> Beside her lay Tara, facedown on the floor, still and quiet with the cast on her wrist cracked open. A piece of rubble similar to the one that had fallen on Willow, rested on her back. Her body was bent oddly, and from the angle, Spike guessed that her spine was broken. The extreme angle probably meant that it had severed her spinal cord, too.
> 
> Bending down, he pressed cold, dead fingers to each of their necks, and wasn't surprised to feel nothing. Willow, he knew, had died from the head injury, and Tara, he wasn't sure. But he was sure that there was nothing he could do for them, and there could possibly be others alive in this building who _could_ benefit from his help.
> 
> Pushing aside the huge chunks of building that he encountered, because the Magic Box had collapsed in on itself just behind the door, it seemed, Spike continued his search, mindless of nothing besides the simple need to find Xander, Anya, Giles and Buffy. After that, he'd deal with looking for Dawn.
> 
> Halfway through the store, he found Giles, part-way behind the counter, and the sight of his crushed body almost made Spike look away. But he was relentless, and his search came to a rewarding almost-end when he discovered Xander's unconscious form, sprawled over the top of a whimpering Anya, both under the counter where it had fallen.
> 
> Anya was in shock, Spike knew, but she would recover. He quickly checked on Xander, and was surprisingly relieved to find him still breathing. Looking him over, Spike couldn't find any visible injuries on the dark-haired young man, and decided to leave them for a moment while searching out his prize.
> 
> Fighting his way to the training room, Spike pushed open the door. It didn't go easily, there was rock stacked on the other side, too. Using all of his vampiric muscles, the platinum-blond haired demon managed to wrestle the rubble out of his way, and tear through the room like a whirlwind in search of the Slayer.
> 
> It was slow going, though. He was only one person, and despite the added strength, it still required time, time that he didn't have, to dig through the room piece by piece. In desperation, he began to call the Slayer's name. "Buffy! Love, can you hear me?"
> 
> In this manner, he continued until he was halfway through the room. Then, during a pause in the noise he was making, Spike heard a faint whisper of a voice. "Spike?" It breathed.
> 
> Spike fought his way desperately though the bits of building that piled up on what used to be the only magic shop in town, toward the sound of his beloved's voice.
> 
> Digging her out proved to only take a few minutes, and when Spike saw her blond locks weaving slowly with the movement of her head, he internally rejoiced. Outside, though, he was fully aware of the dangers. "Slayer, don't move."
> 
> "What?" Buffy's voice was still whisper-thin, but it was there, and growing stronger as Spike lifted the weight off her chest.
> 
> "Don't move. Don't move anything, not even a finger until I get you out of there, and make sure you don't have any back or neck injuries."
> 
> Buffy's soft, and now soot-covered hair stopped its slow waves, and Spike almost asked her to start again. Instead, he worked double-time to uncover her.
> 
> "I can't feel my legs," Buffy confessed in that same soft voice. Again, Spike thought he felt his heart beat once. 
> 
> To keep from scaring the Slayer, Spike attempted to rationalize. "There's a lot of weight on them. It's possible that they just went numb."
> 
> Buffy was silent for a long moment. Then Spike had her head out, and she looked so awful, but so beautiful. Without thought, he swooped down and kissed her softly on the lips before unearthing the rest of her body.
> 
> Once she was exposed, Spike felt around. Being a vampire had given him a long life in which to observe, and he knew a little more about medicine than the average idiot, he hoped. 
> 
> He didn't feel any serious injuries, and Buffy, besides complaining about a broken rib or two, discovered that she could wiggle her fingers and toes, and even move her legs a little. But when she went to stand, she discovered two things: That they wouldn't support her, and that her ankle was probably broken.
> 
> Now that she was sitting down and assessed, she asked about the others. "Where are they?" She asked.
> 
> Spike looked at the ground. "Out there." He pointed to the front of the rubble-filled store.
> 
> "How are they?" She asked impatiently. 
> 
> Spike sighed. "The witches... and the Watcher... didn't make it."
> 
> Buffy ducked her head, and tears rolled from her eyes, down her cheeks. "Xander and Anya?" She managed. 
> 
> "I think they'll be okay. Anya's in shock, Xander was unconscious when I found him, but not badly hurt."
> 
> Buffy suddenly looked up with fire in her eyes, and Spike realized that the Slayer had taken over, and for now, Buffy was hidden, deep in recesses of a warrior's mind. "Dawn," She stated. "We have to find Dawn."
> 
> "I know. I'll find her."
> 
> Buffy didn't even acknowledge that he'd spoken. "If this happened, instead of the portal opening, Glory must have messed up somehow. So Dawn might still be alive."
> 
> Spike put an arm on her shoulder. "I'll find her, Slayer. I promise."
> 
> Buffy looked up. "You'll find her? I'm her sister, and what's more, I'm the Slayer!"
> 
> "You can't walk, pet."
> 
> Buffy looked subdued a little, and Spike reached down, and scooped her up in his strong arms. Even super-strong, she was little, and not at all hard for him to carry.
> 
> Making their way slowly though the shop, Spike carried her back to where he'd left Xander and Anya. The ex-demon was still whimpering a little, but Xander was awake, if groggy, and looking around a little. 
> 
> Spike checked on them, and then looked out the window. "Ordinarily, I'd tell all of you not to move, but the fire's coming this way, and if we don't move now, we'll all be burnt to a crisp."
> 
> He looked from Xander to Anya, and back again. "Can both of you walk?" He asked.
> 
> Anya nodded, and Xander picked his way to his feet, balancing unsteadily on shaky legs, but managing. Spike moved to pick up Buffy, but she fought him. 
> 
> "I can walk!"
> 
> The vampire backed off. "Okay, okay, Slayer!" He folded his arms and stood stock still while Buffy tried to get her disobedient legs under her. 
> 
> Eventually, she gave up, and settled down. Spike took this as his cue, and scooped her up, taking a brisk pace out of the shop and away from the fire. Xander and Anya both stopped and gasped, falling to their knees when they saw the two wiccas' bodies, and Giles' marred almost to the point of being unrecognizable, but Spike pushed them on, reminding everyone that they'd end up like that if they didn't get out of the soon-to-be burning building.
> 
> Buffy's face reflected her shock as they left the shop, and Spike wished there was something he could do, but in truth, there wasn't, and they had to get out of there. So, he kept up a steady pace, only slowing when Xander or Anya couldn't keep up with him on the sometimes-unsteady rubble that buried the streets and lawns.
> 
> Once they reached the car, which took a hour or more, Spike deposited Buffy in the front seat, left Xander and Anya, equally as quiet with shock as the Slayer, and some water in it. He once again gathered the remainder of the stuff, and headed out into the city, searching for the one missing member of the Scooby gang.
> 
> Searching the town without the faintest idea where to look took too long, and Spike had to retreat under his blanket to return to the car, taking with him, the little bit of edible food he'd found in the demolished supermarket.
> 
> Giving the food to Buffy, Xander and Anya, he hastily constructed a lean-to out of the nearest rubble, and draped it with his blankets. Nestling himself inside, he told Buffy he was going to sleep, and would search for Dawn again at sunset. She acknowledged him with a barely perceptible nod, and didn't bother to make eye contact with him, or actually, to move her head at all.

[1]

[Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_][2]

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   [1]: mailto:teneljade@netzero.net
   [2]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/buffy.html
   [3]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/b_afanfic.html



	2. Chapter Two

****

Catastrophe

by

[Princess McPhee][1]

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')

Rating: PG, so far.

> That evening, the rescue crews were long since there, and Spike had been told to stay away from the area, but of course, had heeded them little. Buffy, Anya and Xander had been air-lifted to a hospital in LA, and it had been 'recommended' that Spike go with them, but the vampire resisted, and was soon ignored.
> 
> The crews had paid him little attention, however, and his stealthy nature had enabled him to creep past them and into the wreckage with little trouble. They, too, had a description of Dawn, but Spike didn't know if they would find her. 
> 
> Buffy had authorized him to identify her, should she be found without ID and/or unable to tell the crews who she was. There were, after all, quite a few lanky, dark-haired fourteen-year-olds in Sunnydale.
> 
> It was on the second night that Spike found her. He'd been just about to abandon his search of the caved-in old warehouse because he could see the rescue crews heading his way, but a little whine, barely perceptible, stopped him. "Dawn?" He called.
> 
> The whine again. He headed towards the sound, but he wasn't entirely sure where it was coming from. "Niblet, can you talk to me?"
> 
> "Spike..." Came a whisper-thin sound. 
> 
> Spike dug furiously through the rubble towards the sound of the Slayer's baby sister's voice. "I'm here, Niblet. I'll get you out."
> 
> Dawn was buried under the rubble, but had been lucky enough that a bookshelf had collapsed on top of her, taking the vast majority of the weight. She'd been struck on the head, from the looks of it, her mild confusion helping to clue him in. "Spike?" She asked, looking up at him.
> 
> Spike stood, and yelled out to the crews, regardless of the fact that he wasn't supposed to be in the area. "Over here! I found her!"
> 
> Because they weren't currently working on anyone, just searching the area, they immediately ran to Spike's cry, hoping to help one more poor individual. 
> 
> The crews uncovered her quickly, only momentarily chastising Spike for being in the danger zone. "This her?" One of them asked. 
> 
> "Yeah. That's the Niblet."
> 
> The rescue worker gave him a funny look, and he explained as little as possible. "Just a nickname." That seemed to satisfy him, and her returned to uncovering Dawn from the rubble.
> 
> Once they had her out, they braced her so many ways that Spike wasn't sure she could move anything. She cried out for him, and despite all of their complaints, managed to stay by Dawn's side all through the helicopter ride.
> 
> When they landed, and ran her away from him, he lost them.
> 
> Striding impatiently into the ER, he hurried to the desk. "Dawn Summers was just airlifted in here. I want to know what's going on!"
> 
> The nurse looked down at her chart. "Dawn Summers is in trauma two. But the doctors are working on her, and you can't go in there, sir," The nurse continued, when it looked like Spike was going to take off in that direction. 
> 
> Spike looked over at the woman, and bit his tongue before spitting out that he could do anything he darn well pleased. "But I can watch, right?" He asked.
> 
> The nurse looked hesitant, but nodded. "Trauma two is down that hall, second door on the right. It has a glass window. Don't enter the room, sir."
> 
> Spike ignored the older woman and hurried down the hallway as fast as he could with people pushing at him from all sides. He found the room, and was relieved to note that Dawn wasn't on any kind of breathing device, she seemed to be conscious and breathing on her own.
> 
> He watched as they attended to her, poking and asking if things hurt. A normal person wouldn't have been able to identify the doctors voices over the din, but vampiric hearing easily could.
> 
> Eventually, one of the doctor's and a bunch of nurses wheeled her out of the room, and Spike ran alongside them as they relocated her to a room. "What's going on?" He demanded loudly.
> 
> Dawn tried to look up at him, but couldn't because there was still a brace on her neck. "Spike?" She asked, her voice full of anxiety.
> 
> "Yeah, it's me, Dawnie." Spike dashed forward, and managed to get where she could see him. 
> 
> Dawn's eyes teared a little. "Spike!" She cried, relief apparent in her voice. 
> 
> Spike grabbed her hand, and gave a little smile, which felt funny on his face because of the long period of time it had been since he'd smiled. "It'll be okay, Niblet, I promise."
> 
> Once they'd gotten Dawn settled in in a room, the doctor pulled Spike aside. "Who are you?" She asked without preamble. "Brother? Friend of the family?"
> 
> "Friend of the family," Spike replied. 
> 
> "I'm afraid I can't discuss patient's conditions with anyone but immediate family." The doctor told him.
> 
> "Look," Spike told the woman, "Her sis is here too, in bad shape. Her mum died a couple of months ago, dad's in Spain and can't be reached. Please, how is she?"
> 
> "I'm afraid I still can't disclose that information."
> 
> Suddenly, Spike remembered something, and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Here!" He remarked triumphantly. "Her sis signed this when she knew that she wasn't going to be able to be here." He handed it to the doctor.
> 
> She glanced over it, and looked up at him. "It looks alright. And it says that you're to be treated as Dawn's guardian until she's released from the hospital."
> 
> She looked back at the younger girl, who appeared almost asleep, but her eyes were still wide open. "She's not very good. She's got a broken leg, and a broken arm. She's seriously dehydrated, and has a fair loss of blood, which, interestingly, is not associated to the rest of her condition. You wouldn't happen to know what happened, would you?"
> 
> Spike shook his head, and the doctor continued.
> 
> "The bottom line is, she'll live, but it's going to be a rough road to hoe. I'm surprised she was conscious when we got to her, but I doubt she's going to stay that way. Her leg is broken in several places, were it any more shattered, she might have lost it, but as it is, it will require several surgeries. 
> 
> "My advice is, go home and get a good night's sleep. She'll probably be out most of the night, and maybe most of tomorrow, too. You'll then need to be present when we tell her about her injuries, and make a few minor decisions regarding the surgeries." The doctor gave him a curt nod, and headed off as a nurse called her name.
> 
> Spike, for his part, went quietly in to check on Dawn, sitting next to her and just holding her hand for a long time, maybe a couple of hours.
> 
> Sometime in the middle of the night, he went to the front desk, and asked where he could find Buffy. They directed him to the third floor in room 603, but cautioned him that visiting hours were definitely not in the middle of the night.
> 
> Spike pretended to retire, leaving the hospital and coming in another entrance, and nobody attempted to stop him on his way to Buffy's room. 
> 
> When he reached her room, he peered through the door, intending just to watch her sleep, but he noticed immediately that she wasn't sleeping. She looked up at him, and motioned him inside the room.
> 
> Spike slipped in silently after checking the hallways, and hurried to her side. "Buffy!" He whispered. "How are you, love?"
> 
> Buffy gave him a wry smile, not even bothering to make a face at his calling her 'love'. "I don't know. Nobody knows. 'Maybe we'll know more in the morning.'" She said, obviously impersonating some doctor who'd been talking to her, or another doctor or nurse. 
> 
> "How's Dawnie?" She asked worriedly.
> 
> "She'll be okay. But it isn't going to be easy for her, Buffy. The doc says she'll need a few surgeries for her leg, she broke it."
> 
> Buffy looked down for a long moment, and then looked back up, but kept her eyes averted from Spike's. "Will... will you stay with me?" She asked. "I couldn't sleep. Maybe having someone here would help."
> 
> Spike gave her a little smile. "'Course, Slayer." He reached over and patted her hand, then got up to make sure that the curtains on her window were thick enough. After that, he returned to her side, and just sat there, watching her, long into the early morning.
> 
> Spike was awakened by the ordinary bustle of the early morning in a hospital. He looked around, then, having ascertained where he was, returned his attention to Buffy. She was still asleep, and he smiled at the angelic expression that covered her face in sleep. 
> 
> The door was pushed open, and Spike started, as did the nurse who was pushing a tray of I.V. bags. "Sir, you shouldn't be here," She told him. "Visiting hours don't start until much later."
> 
> Buffy rolled a little, and blinked. Spike ignored the nurse, and turned to her. "Good morning, Slayer," He greeted her. 
> 
> Buffy was just about to go 'what the hell are you doing here, Spike?', he could see it in her expression, but then she remembered the previous day, and her face crumpled, sobs for the lost lives of her friends consuming her body. Spike leaned down and held her, offering no empty comfort, instead, just allowing her body to exhaust its reservoirs of grief in familiar arms.
> 
> The nurse was still there, changing the I.V. around Spike's body. She'd been trying to convince him to leave for some time now, but after the first time, Spike hadn't so much as acknowledged that he'd heard her. She left the room in a huff, and he wasn't surprised when a doctor and a couple of orderlies strode into the room moments later.
> 
> "Excuse me, sir, but I really need to ask you to leave," The doctor told him in a firm tone. Spike looked up at the man, and sent him what used to be his most terrifying look. 
> 
> "Can't you see that she wants me here? In what world does a hospital throw out people who are providing emotional support for someone who just lost two friends and the man who might as well have been her father in the space of the last twenty-four hours?" Buffy began to sob a little harder in his arms, having quieted when the doctor entered, but not able to hold it in at the verbal reminder.
> 
> "I'm afraid, sir, that it's not up to me. There are policies, and that's just one of them," The doctor explained to the irate vampire.
> 
> Spike looked down at Buffy's slight body in his arms, and then thought about Dawn. It wouldn't do to have himself in so much trouble that he couldn't visit either of them. "Buffy," He said softly, glaring at the doctor the whole time, "I have to go. There's a rule about people visiting."
> 
> Her only response was a muffled "No!" Against his clothing.
> 
> One of the orderlies stepped forward to try to reason with the grief-struck Slayer, but met with little more success than Spike previously had. Her only answer was "No!"
> 
> Eventually, the orderlies consented to allow Spike to stay with Buffy, for the simple reason that no one could remove the vampire from the Slayer's inhuman grip. Spike chuckled when he realized this, but then turned his attention back to comforting the now-exhausted and tear-stained girl.
> 
> He realized that she'd fallen asleep in his arms, and he gently lay her back against the pillow, quickly scribbling a note explaining where he was before he left.

[[1][2]] [2]

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   [1]: mailto:teneljade@netzero.net
   [2]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/catastrophe1.htm
   [3]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/buffy.html
   [4]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/b_afanfic.html



	3. Chapter Three

****

Catastrophe

by

[Princess McPhee][1]

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')

Rating: PG, so far.

> PART THREE
> 
> From a rather annoyed older nurse at the desk, Spike learned that Dawn was now in a regular room, and he was rather reluctantly allowed to know which one. Moving quickly, and trying to surreptitiously avoid the sun-spots dotting the hall, the vampire went to see Buffy's little sister.
> 
> Upon entering the room, he was relieved to hear Dawn's steady breathing, unaided by any sort of machine. He crept silently to the side of the bed, and just sat there, awaiting her return to consciousness.
> 
> While he was waiting, he took the time to look her over. She had a cast on her arm, and a splint on her leg, since they didn't want to cast it just to remove it in order to do the surgeries. She had a bandage on her head, covering what Spike knew to be a deep cut, but otherwise looked pretty okay. 
> 
> Spike reached over, and pushed the hair from her face, tenderly tucking it behind her ear. As he did so, she stirred, and her eyelids fluttered. Spike sat back, and waited for her to awaken.
> 
> When she'd opened her eyes all the way, she looked around nervously, taking in the bland hospital room, and relief was evident in her eyes when her gaze hit the old vampire. "Spike?" She managed, in a dry, hoarse voice.
> 
> "Yeah, Little Bit, I'm right here," Spike responded, pouring her a glass of water from the pitcher on the side table. He held it out to her, and she took it with her good hand. 
> 
> "Spike?"
> 
> "Yeah?"
> 
> "How are the... Scoobies?"
> 
> Spike sighed. _Now comes the tough part_. "Xander and Anya are fine."
> 
> Dawn's face showed her panic, shock and denial. "But... but Willow! And Tara, and Giles! What about them?"
> 
> Spike looked at the ground. "'Fraid they weren't as lucky, pet."
> 
> "They're... they're... _dead_?"
> 
> Spike took her hand. "I'm sorry, love."
> 
> Dawn seemed to just crumple, and Spike's heart ached with the knowledge that he couldn't do anything further. She sobbed quietly, evidently in some pain, both emotional and physical. Spike suspected that it was much more the former, though, having been much closer to the two witches and Giles than Anya, and maybe even Xander. 
> 
> The vampire just took her uninjured hand, and rubbed her arm. He didn't attempt to comfort her, knowing from previous experience that this action often actually created the opposite reaction from the one the comforter was trying to achieve. Instead, he simply stared down at her with what his what Drusilla had once called 'Blue, blue, bluer than the sky' eyes.
> 
> After a long moment, Dawn looked up at Spike, obviously terrified of the answer to her next question, and asked quietly, "Buffy?"  
Spike felt terrible for not having brought this up on his own, before he'd caused her the extra worry, and answered hurriedly. "She's fine."
> 
> Dawn's eyes lit with hope and joy, but narrowed a little when she realized that Spike had answered awfully quickly. "Really?"
> 
> "Really." After all, Buffy was going to live, and there was nothing wrong with a little white lie, right? Dawn would be able to handle the news of her sister's injuries better when she herself was healthier.
> 
> "Why isn't she here, then?"
> 
> "She got a little banged up, too, and they wanted to keep her here for a while too. But Slayer healing and all, she'll be out in no time, remember?"
> 
> Dawn smiled a little, fading fast. Spike recalled a nurse having told him that her periods of complete lucidity might be short, after this much trauma and with so many pain-killers in her system, for a while. He leaned down, and kissed her forehead. "Sleep, Little Bit. When you wake up later, Xander and Anya, and maybe your sister can come visit."
> 
> Dawn nodded sleepily, and closed her eyes. Spike waited for a long moment before it was obvious that she was fast asleep, and then, with one more kiss, this one on the back of the uninjured hand, he snuck from the room, heading back to the Slayer.
> 
> Back in Buffy's room, Spike quickly learned that the doctors had some news for Buffy, but she'd insisted on waiting until he returned before hearing it. He was touched, but then realized that he was the only adult figure in the entire area that she knew, and would soon be replaced by Angel, no doubt, who was already on his way.
> 
> The doctor's face was grim, and Spike thought he was almost as scared as the Slayer clearly was, clinging to his arm the way she was. Once or twice, she'd looked down at her grip, reconsidering, but had neglected to actually remove her arms. Spike had pretended not to notice, and that had seemed to help.
> 
> "Miss Summers," The doctor started.
> 
> "Buffy." She corrected him nervously. "I'm not old enough to be a 'miss'. And--" She cut herself off, realizing that she was nervously rambling, like she tended to do on occasion. "What were you saying?"
> 
> "Buffy," The doctor started again, "We've run some tests. Now, we don't have a definite prognosis on your injuries, because nerve damage is always tricky, but this is an overview of what we've found."
> 
> Spike's arm was being clenched with all the nervous strength of an anxious Slayer, and for once in his unlife, he was glad he was a vampire.
> 
> "Yes?" Buffy said, in a nervous tone, very unlike her usual voice. Spike continued to ignore her, paining himself considerably, but knowing it was best for her. If he acknowledged she was leaning on him for comfort, she might stop, and she really needed someone right now, he knew.
> 
> "You have some feeling and movement capabilities in both legs. That's good. Now, with time, and therapy, you ought to be able to walk unassisted again. But I'm afraid that they'll never be exactly like they used to be. And it may take some time, seeing as we've only seen extremely minor improvements from your initial check-in time."
> 
> Buffy looked down, and this time, Spike couldn't resist. He leaned over her, wrapping his arms around her small body, covering her frame with his. "Shhh, Slayer. It'll be okay," He consoled her.
> 
> With a burst of Slayer speed and strength, she pushed him away from her, very nearly landing him on his butt on the ground. He smirked a little. This might be tough, but as long as that Buffy was still in there, she'd be okay.
> 
> The doctor told her that the rest of her injuries were pretty minor, and that they only wanted to keep her one more night. They would teach her how to work a wheelchair, and she would get physical therapy every day, progressing to a walker, then crutches, a cane, and nothing. Buffy nodded though all of this, but kept a clear eye on the door, something that disheartened Spike a little, because she was obviously waiting for Angel.
> 
> The doctor was just finishing, telling her how to get a hold of him, when the door swung open, and the familiar, tall, dark vampire strode in with his usual confident walk, more hurried than usual in his haste to check on Buffy. "Buffy!"
> 
> Buffy looked up tiredly, but brightened just a little when she saw him. Spike felt like he was going green, he was so envious, but he knew that he would never have that kind of effect on the Slayer. It just wasn't meant to be. He'd keep trying, though, until she rebuffed him enough that he gave up completely. 
> 
> Still it hurt him tremendously to watch her eyes light up as she called out his name. "Angel!"
> 
> "Hello," Spike greeted his sire, amicably enough. Angel barely spared a glance for him, and mostly a glare as it was, but at least he acknowledged the younger vampire. 
> 
> "Spike."
> 
> The doctor nodded to Buffy, and motioned to the bell. "You can reach me though the nurses station," He informed her. "Just press that button, and tell the nurse that you need Doctor Gringlie, and I'll be here as soon as possible."
> 
> Buffy nodded back. "Thanks," She told him, and he slipped out of the door, oblivious to the fact that both of the vampires jumped out of the way of the sun as soon as he had cracked the door even a little.
> 
> The Slayer returned her gaze to the older vampire, and Spike stood to leave. Before he could get out of the room, though, he witnessed Angel wrapping his arms around Buffy the same way he had, just minutes ago. 
> 
> Only he didn't get thrown onto the floor. Instead, he got snuggled.
> 
> Spike sighed internally with jealousy, and left, skirting the pockets of sunlight in the corridors, going to find something to do besides watch Angel and Buffy cuddle.
> 
> The room was dark, and the moonlight came through the blinds just a little as Spike was reading to Dawn. The book was some sappy, teenage angst/romance book that he was sure was going to make him gag sometime soon, but he was putting up with it for Dawn's sake.
> 
> There was a soft knock on the door, and then a pause as whoever it was waited to denied of admitted. Spike was impressed with their manners. In the hospital, nobody seemed to knock, they just walked in and out at their own free will, and Dawn had been complaining about her lack of privacy.
> 
> He was also so relieved that he didn't care who was on the other side, it could be Satan himself, as long as he didn't have to read the book for a while. He didn't want anyone to take it wrong, he loved Dawn, but the book was killing him. "Come in!"
> 
> Dawn struggled to turn her head towards the door without jarring her leg. It was swollen and the skin looked tight, a patch of gauze and medical tape over the stitches where her first surgery earlier in the day, had delved. She was still pretty out of it, but had insisted on seeing Xander, Anya and Buffy.
> 
> They wandered into the room, Xander pushing Buffy's wheelchair. Buffy had that look on her face, and Spike just knew that she'd fought him about it all the way there, but apparently the dark-haired youth had won out. Anya followed them, a few bandages on her, but mostly appearing unhurt. Xander had a bandage on his head, but also appeared in pretty decent shape.
> 
> "Hey, Dawnster," Xander greeted her. Dawn raised her uninjured arm a little, and waved at them. She wasn't talking too much, because her throat was still dry. 
> 
> "Xander, Anya." Spike nodded his head, and moved out of the way so that Buffy could maneuver her wheelchair up next to Dawn's bed. 
> 
> "Dawn, are you all right?"
> 
> Dawn nodded a little, and cleared her throat. "It sure hurts... but they say I'm gonna be fine." Spike handed her a cup of water, and she drank it gratefully.
> 
> Buffy grabbed her sister's hand. "Thank god."
> 
> "You?" Dawn asked, concern etching the features on her face.
> 
> Buffy cracked an un-humorous smile. "I'll be okay. But it doesn't look like I'll be able to keep my black belt in Slayer-fighting."
> 
> Dawn's eyes showed her question, and Buffy answered. "Nerve damage. My legs don't work the way they used to."
> 
> The younger Summers' girl's eyes widened, and she looked scared for her sister. Buffy smiled again, this time reassuringly. "It's okay. They'll get better."
> 
> Dawn seemed to relax a little at that statement, and Spike realized that Buffy, too, had realized the wisdom of waiting until Dawn was stronger, to tell her about the full extent of her injuries.
> 
> Xander and Anya chatted at Dawn a little, both looking sad, but determined to cheer Dawn up. After a while, an orderly came to collect Buffy, telling her that it was time to be back in her room. Buffy didn't protest, because her doctor had told her if she didn't follow all the rules, she might not be released tomorrow.
> 
> Xander and Anya left soon after, and Spike watched Dawn until she fell asleep. Then, he crept from the room, and retreated to Buffy's, again.

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[Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_][4]

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   [1]: mailto:teneljade@netzero.net
   [2]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/catastrophe1.htm
   [3]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/catastrophe2.htm
   [4]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/buffy.html
   [5]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/b_afanfic.html



	4. Chapter Four

****

Catastrophe

by

[Princess McPhee][1]

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')

Rating: PG, so far.

> PART FOUR
> 
> Angel was gone, on patrol, Buffy told him. Apparently, LA had about as much appeal to the demons as the hellmouth, just larger quantities of the less bizarre ones, rather than the small but constant army of hellish oddities that frequented Sunnydale. Spike was glad, not really in the mood to deal with his sire and all of his pent-up angst.
> 
> And not quite so pent-up anger, frustration and hatred pointed at Spike.
> 
> Xander and Anya had left hours ago, and Spike was curled up in one of the hard hospital chairs, dozing gently. The vampire killed many hours this way under ordinary circumstances, so he continued to do so when faced with the daunting boredom of a hospital.
> 
> Buffy was laying on the bed, perfectly still, watching some stupid television show, or at least, that was what she was supposed to be doing. Spike, out of his half-open eyes, could see that the Slayer's were unfocused and staring, not really affording the TV any of her attention.
> 
> "Spike?" She asked, out of the blue.
> 
> The vampire straightened, and put his arms over his head, stretching. "Yeah, pet?"
> 
> "Will you tell Angel when he gets back that I'm asleep? Even if I'm not?"
> 
> Spike almost grinned at this statement, but nodded solemnly. "Sure, Slayer."
> 
> Then Buffy turned towards him, and glared, typical Slayer-fare, and Spike smiled a little, fighting to keep his laughter from spilling through his tightly closed lips. "This isn't my vote for you in this little competition you have against Angel, Spike." She told him hotly.
> 
> Spike nodded. "Wouldn't think so, ma'am." He tightened his lips even further.
> 
> Buffy returned to the television screen.
> 
> Moments later, she turned back to the blond vampire, still glaring. "I just don't want his pity right now," She told Spike defensively.
> 
> Spike shrugged, trying hard for the indifferent look. "You don't have to explain to me, Slayer."
> 
> Buffy stared at the vampire, hard. Spike looked right back, daring to attempt to stare her down. Of course, he'd lose, but he was willing to try. 
> 
> Buffy relaxed after a moment, and returned to staring dazedly at the black box in the corner of the room. Spike watched her as she dozed off, then left to sit in the hallway. Dawn was back in surgery in the morning, and needed her sleep, so he didn't want to bother her. Xander and Anya were at home, hopefully getting some rest.
> 
> The vampire dozed off again in the waiting room chairs.
> 
> Angel returned just as the dawn was breaking. He shook Spike shortly, his patience about as long as his hair, the younger vamp was sure. He looked crusty and old for a moment, the pain of his soul weighing heavily in his eyes for a long moment before he spoke. Spike almost felt sorry for his grand-sire, for a moment.
> 
> "How's Buffy?"
> 
> That moment passed about as quickly as it had come.
> 
> "Asleep." Spike kept his answer as short and curt as Angel's question. If the bloody poof wasn't going to make any semblance of being polite, then he sure as hell wasn't going to put out any effort, either!
> 
> "And Dawn?"
> 
> Spike shrugged. "Surgery's in an hour," He told the older vampire. "Gonna go hang out with her in a few minutes."
> 
> Angel cocked his head. "Mind if I come?"
> 
> Spike didn't answer, and Angel didn't press the matter, merely tagged along when Spike picked himself up off the chair about five minutes later, and headed towards Dawn's room. Waiting for six am seemed like a reasonable thing to do, he decided, even though these definitely weren't approved visiting hours, either, anymore than midnight was.
> 
> Spike knocked gently on the door before he entered, remembering how upset Dawn was with people just walking in and out. Teenagers needed their privacy, Spike knew, but how much they needed it, he'd never realized until he met Dawn.
> 
> "Who is it?" She called weakly.
> 
> Spike frowned on the outside of the door, concerned about the way her voice sounded. "It's me, Little Bit."
> 
> There was a moments pause, and then, "Come in,"
> 
> Spike cracked open the door, and poked his head in, carefully shielding the view of the room from Angel. He didn't actually think she would care, but he enjoyed bothering his grand-sire, under the pretense of doing what Dawn wanted. "I brought the big poof with me, too."
> 
> Dawn nodded a little, propped up just a bit on a wall of pillows. "You guys can come in," She told Spike.
> 
> The younger vampire pushed open the door, and both creatures of the night wandered into the girl's room. There was a nurse on one side of her bed, checking her pulse, and feeding her some pills, but the woman ignored Dawn's visitors. 
> 
> "Hey," Dawn greeted them, spreading a thing smile for Angel. "Haven't seen you in a while," She told him.
> 
> Angel smiled back at her, a little uncomfortable, Spike could see. Gloating at the fact that he knew Dawn much better than the other vampire, he took the seat next to Dawn's bed. 
> 
> "I wish we had," Angel replied. Dawn nodded, and then turned back to the nurse to take the pills she offered.
> 
> When the nurse left the room, Dawn looked pleadingly over at Spike, and the vampire bent his head down lower, so that Dawn didn't have to speak so loudly with her still-sore throat. "What is it, Little Bit?"
> 
> Dawn averted her eyes from his before she spoke, and even then, only continued hesitantly. "I'm... nervous, Spike."
> 
> Spike reached out, and took her hand. "Well, that's nothing to be ashamed of, Little Bit. Even vampires get scared, though a lot of them aren't smart enough to."
> 
> Dawn looked up at him for a second, then pulled her eyes away once more. "Do you, Spike?"
> 
> Spike looked up at Angel, who was watching them out of the corner of his eye, feigning disinterest, and hesitated. Then, deciding that he owed Dawn a real answer, and not one set up to impress the big ol' poof, he took a breath, and turned back to her. "Yeah, Dawn, I do."
> 
> Angel turned, and for a moment, Spike thought he saw something shining in the older vampire's eyes, something that looked suspiciously like... pride? But it vanished seconds later, and he only looked at Dawn. "You'd have to be pretty stupid not to be scared of some of the things Spike and I have seen, Dawn."
> 
> Dawn scanned Angel thoughtfully for a moment, then turned back to the blond vampire. "Will you be here when I come back?" She asked.
> 
> Spike nodded, and brushed her uninjured hand with his. "'Course I will, pet. But you'll be fine. You're my Bitty Buffy, remember?"
> 
> Dawn smiled, and Angel looked confused. No one took enough pity on him to explain, though.
> 
> The next forty-five minutes Spike and Angel spent mostly alone in Dawn's room, because various people came to get her, to wash her, and otherwise prepare her for the surgery. They stayed in her room, though, because periodically, she would return for a moment or two, and Spike wanted to be there for her.
> 
> When Dawn was finally taken away for her surgery, Spike and Angel returned to Buffy's part of the hospital. Spike let Angel knock on the door, and stick his head in, thinking that he would probably be more likely to believe his eyes than Spike's word. Together, the vampire's took the shadiest corner of the waiting room, and waited for half an hour or so.
> 
> After a while, the big vampire grew restless. "I've got to go back to the agency," he told Spike. "Tell Buffy that she can reach me on my cell phone, if she needs me."
> 
> Spike bit back an unpleasant remark about how much Buffy needed him, and just nodded. He waited until Angel was out of sight, and just a little longer, allowing for vampire hearing, then made his way back into Buffy's room, unsure of whether she'd really been asleep, or faking it for Angel's benefit.
> 
> Knocking on the door, he wasn't surprised to hear no response. She had no way of knowing who it was, did she? Pushing it open just a couple of inches, he spoke into the crack in the door. "It's me, Slayer,"
> 
> Buffy's eyes opened, and she turned her head towards the door. "Come in," She told him. "Where's Angel?"
> 
> Spike flopped himself down in one of the chairs next to Buffy's side. "Gone. Got bored, standing around in the waiting room. Says you can call his cell phone if you need him."
> 
> Buffy nodded, and lay back in bed, closing her eyes. Spike closed his own eyes, and dozed lightly, though fully aware of his surroundings. When a doctor rapped on the door, and pushed it open, both he and Buffy opened their eyes quickly, observing the man who entered. "Good morning, Buffy, ...Spike."
> 
> For some reason, many people that Spike met, had real trouble with his name. He couldn't figure out why.
> 
> Buffy gave the doctor a weary smile, and Spike didn't bother acknowledging him at all. "Hello, Dr. Gringlie," She greeted him. "So, do I get to go today?"
> 
> The doctor looked over her, and nodded slowly. "Yes, you can go. I would recommend that you stay another day or two, though."
> 
> "Why?" Buffy asked, puzzled.
> 
> "Well, for a while, you're going to need help getting around. Getting dressed, getting in the bathtub, things like that. I can get you clearance to stay a couple more days, but no longer. I just thought that the longer you stayed here, the longer until you have to worry about who's going to do that for you."
> 
> "What do people usually do?" Buffy asked.
> 
> "Hire nurses. Stay with their parents, their siblings, if they have them. Friends sometimes help out, too."
> 
> Buffy's face cracked a little at the mention of all those people she didn't have anymore. "Thanks, Doctor, but I think I'll leave today."
> 
> Dr. Gringlie nodded, and pulled a wheelchair into the room, from the hall. "I thought you might say that," He replied. "I'll leave you to get dressed, and then you can ring the bell for a nurse when you're ready to leave."
> 
> Buffy shook her head a little. "We'll just be going to my sister's room, to wait fro her to come out of surgery," the Slayer explained. "So I won't need the nurse. But are there papers to sign, or forms to fill out, or something?"
> 
> The doctor nodded, and explained. "At the desk here, there are a couple of papers to pick up and fill out. Then you return them to the main admittance desk for this floor, which is all the way at the other end of building." He looked down at the Slayer for a moment, and held out his hand. "It was nice to meet you, Buffy."
> 
> Buffy shook his hand, and nodded at the doctor. "You too, Doctor. I guess I'll see you tomorrow, at therapy?" She questioned. 
> 
> The doctor nodded. "Yes. But just tomorrow, to get you settled in, and then you'll have a different doctor as a therapist," he explained. 
> 
> Buffy nodded. "Well, see you then," She told him, with a small smile. The doctor nodded again, and ducked out of the room. Spike picked up Buffy's clothes from the nightstand, and handed them to the Slayer, then followed suit. 
> 
> "Call me when you're decent, Slayer," He told her. Buffy nodded, and Spike closed the door behind him.
> 
> Several moments later, Buffy called Spike back into the room, and the vampire entered, expecting to see her dressed and ready to leave. Instead, he found her clothed from the waist up, and covered with a sheet below, crying frustratedly. Spike moved quickly to her side, and sat down. "What's wrong, love?" He asked.
> 
> Buffy pounded her fist against his leg, and he hid his wince. Slayer strength she still had, whether her legs worked right or not. "I can't put my pants on!" She cried. "I can't even dress myself, and it's so frustrating!"
> 
> Spike grabbed her pants, and yanked back the sheet. Buffy gasped, and stopped crying, looking outraged at his actions. "What the hell are you doing, Spike?" 
> 
> "Getting you dressed," He replied, pulling her pants-legs over her limp feet. She put her hands on his back, prepared to display her infuriation, but for some reason or another, she didn't actually act on her impulse. 
> 
> Spike pulled her pants up to her thighs, and then rolled her on her side to slide them over her hips, one at a time. Putting her on her back once more, her deftly buttoned them, then swooped her up and placed her in the wheelchair. Buffy grabbed her purse, and said, "Let's get out of here!"
> 
> Pushing her chair down the hallway, Spike wondered if he dare ask his question. Deciding that he needed to know the answer, he braced himself for the Slayer's wrath, and asked. "Who are you going to have help you out, Slayer?" He asked, calmly continuing to push her towards the desk they needed to visit.
> 
> Buffy shook her head, a lot more calmly then Spike had thought she was liable to. "I don't know. I can't really ask Xander and Anya, it would be imposing on them too much. I wouldn't ask my father, even if I could. I guess I'll stay with Angel for a while."
> 
> "Won't that be a bit hard on the poof?" Spike queried. He didn't like Angel, but he wouldn't wish the sight of Buffy, frequently in a state of undress on the already grief-stricken vampire anyway. 
> 
> Buffy shrugged. "It's the best I can do at the moment. I don't really have that much money, so I'll probably end up staying with them anyway. Angel says they own a hotel, and he offered me a couple of rooms."
> 
> Spike nodded slowly, even though Buffy couldn't see him. "Why don't you let me hang around and help out, pet?"
> 
> Buffy twisted around in the chair, and looked at him oddly. "Why?"
> 
> "Why what?"
> 
> Buffy's face suddenly hardened, and she nodded. "I get it. You get a lot of chances to see me naked this way, is that right, Spike? Can't get me the real way, so might as well get me anyway you can, is that it?"
> 
> Spike glared back at her, determined to meet her icy stare with a fiery one of his own. "Actually, Slayer, that wasn't what I was thinking. Actually, I was thinking that you're in trouble, you've got no one to help you out except an old ex-boyfriend, who I'm certain you don't actually want to see you in the aforementioned state, and I thought I might help you out!" 
> 
> Turning from the wheelchair, the vampire stalked away, knowing that Buffy's Slayer strength was more than enough to make up for her lack of practice rolling wheelchairs.
> 
> Sure enough, she came swiftly after him. Her face was guarded, but softened slightly by his outburst, and she wheeled the chair so that he couldn't get past her in the hallway, stopping him in his tracks. "You really want to help, Spike?" She asked.
> 
> The vampire looked down at her. "Yes. I really want to help you, Slayer. I'm not all about sex and naked girls and blood, you know."
> 
> Buffy looked thoughtful. "I guess you actually haven't been, lately," She mused. "I'm sorry about jumping at you back there," She told him. "I accept your offer, if it's still open," She said, holding out her hand.
> 
> A small smile crossed the vampire's face, and he reached for her hand, shaking it firmly. "It is," He told her.

[[1][2]] [[2][3]] [[3][4]] [4]

[Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_][5]

[Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic][6]

   [1]: mailto:teneljade@netzero.net
   [2]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/catastrophe1.htm
   [3]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/catastrophe2.htm
   [4]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/catastrophe3.htm
   [5]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/buffy.html
   [6]: http://www.geocities.com/princess_mcphee/b_afanfic.html



	5. Chapter Five

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

Spike couldn't wait to see Angel's face when he learned that his grand-childe was to be the Slayer's nursemaid. He was sincere in his interests, he really did want to help Buffy, but he also didn't think there was anything wrong with gloating a little. After all, Angelus had spent centuries lording over Spike. It was only fair that the tables got turned once in a millennium, or so.

He glanced over at Buffy, who was sitting in her wheelchair, staring dazedly into space. They had been waiting for Dawn to come out of surgery for hours, and he couldn't blame the Slayer for being bored. They weren't really concerned, because the surgeon had come out several minutes ago to assure them that things had gone well, but the younger girl was in recovery, and wouldn't be out for a while.

But it was hell for a Slayer who was used to burning excess energy by pounding things, having to sit in a chair and wait, and not much better for Spike, who though had had more than a hundred years in which to practice, still had not learned patience. Standing up and starting to pace, he only managed to keep quiet for ten minutes or so before exploding.

"When the bloody hell is she going to back!"

Buffy didn't respond, used to his attacks. Several other patrons looked over at him, and a nurse shushed him, but Spike paid them no mind. Collapsing on the couch next to Buffy's wheelchair, he sprawled out over every part of the furniture possible. "This is hell, pet."

Buffy only nodded mutely, a sure sign of how bored and/or annoyed she was, Spike thought. But a quick look her way proved otherwise. The Slayer was deep in memories, and was almost sure to be thinking about those who had been so loyal to her, and hadn't survived to see this day. Scooting closer to her, Spike tentatively stroked her hair with a hand once, and then put it over her delicate wrist. "I'm sorry about them, love, really."

Buffy looked up at him, and Spike waited as she searched his gaze. Looking, he knew, for any sign that the vampire wasn't sincere, for any sign that Spike was only drawing out her self-imposed torture. But he held himself open to her stare because he knew she would find no fault, and wasn't surprised when she simply nodded a moment later. "I know you are."

They sat in silence until a long while later when the doctor came to get them and told them Dawn was awake, if not very coherent. They only spent a little while visiting her because she was so out of it, but they were staying with her that night, in the next room, so they told her that they'd be there in the morning.

Wheeling Buffy's chair into their room for the night, Spike picked up the sleepy Slayer and deposited her on the bed. Swiftly undressing her and trying not to think, he slid a nightshirt over her nearly-bare form and tucked her into the bed. Then he pushed two chairs together next to the bed, grabbed an extra blanket, and tried to sleep.

About two hours into the night, when he'd long-since realized that the rumor about hospital chairs was all-too true and he wasn't going to get any sleep, the vampire sat up as stealthily as possible, trying not to wake the gently snoring Slayer. It was of no use however, years and years of training had put Buffy on the alert, and she awoke the second Spike stirred. 

He looked down at her, something almost akin to tenderness in his eyes, he knew. "Go back to sleep, pet. I'm just getting something to eat."

Buffy looked at him suspiciously. "Angel brought you blood barely four hours ago," She told him. "Couldn't sleep in those chairs?"

Spike shrugged, found out. "Even the dead can't sleep in hospital chairs, pet." He pointed at the door. "I'm gonna go see if there's a better place to sleep in reception."

Buffy then made the last move Spike had expected to see in his unlife. "Come sleep in the bed. It's big enough for both of us." She paused, then glared at him, making Spike wonder what he'd done. "_If_ you keep your hands... and all other body parts _to yourself_."

Spike smiled, and sat down on the edge of the bed. Buffy stopped him with one little cough. He looked at her, puzzled. 

"Not with those grungy things on, you don't."

Spike was genuinely puzzled. "Which grungy things?" He asked.

Buffy looked him up and down appraisingly. "Well, I guess you have a point," She said. "They're _all_ grungy things. But I was talking about the boots that have been through hell and the jeans you haven't changed since 1950."

"I've changed my bloody pants in the last fifty years!"

She smiled achingly sweetly. "But have you ever washed them?"

"Yes! I have bloody well washed my pants since 1950!"

Buffy smiled. "You're still not getting into bed with them."

Spike leered at her, not one to pass up an opportunity being handed to him. "Oh. So that's what it's all about, pet. You just want to see what I have to offer before you decide."

Buffy shook her head. "One, you're dangerously close to being back in the plastic back-breakers. And two, there's nothing to decide. Except whether you'd like to keep your jeans on or actually get some sleep tonight more."

Spike shed his pants and boots and climbed into bed.

The next morning, a rather overweight nurse pushed open the door only long enough to say in a totally indifferent tone, "Seven o'clock." Then she disappeared once more.

Spike pushed up off the bed and stretched slowly, cat-style. Putting one foot through the slats of the metal bedframe, he then raised the other leg straight in the air until it came to rest on his shoulder. Moaning gently with the tension his stretch released, he simply sat there for several moments.

Without stirring, the Slayer opened her eyes. "Impressive."

Spike let go of his leg and let it fall back against the mattress. "Only way to beat up the baddies, pet. Bet you can do it, too."

Buffy shrugged. "Sure. But that's not the point."

Spike looked at her, a funny expression on his face. "Pet, what _is_ the point?"

Buffy threw her hands in the air dramatically. "How should I know?"

"Because you started this bloody conversation!"

Suddenly, Buffy started laughing semi-hysterically. It took Spike a moment longer to see what was so funny, but then he got it, and a slow grin started to spread out across his face. "We're pretty funny first thing in morning, huh, love?"

Buffy just nodded, still laughing.

Standing up and getting dressed quickly, Spike opened the door and jumped back, ready to avoid any direct sunlight that might come through the now-open portal to the hallway. Luckily, there was none, though it was bright in a way that the vampire hadn't seen in a long time, causing him to blink rather hard. "I'm gonna get us breakfast, pet. What do you want?"

Without thinking, she replied. "A roll. And orange juice." Spike nodded, and stood up from where he was putting his boots on. 

"One roll and an orange juice for the Slayer."

Buffy suddenly realized what she'd said and looked at him sharply. "Where are you getting breakfast, Spike?" She asked.

He shrugged. "Sure there's something around here, love."

"Spike..."

"What?"

"Do not go near the blood bank."

The vampire flashed his mouth-watering grin. "Wouldn't dream of it, Slayer. I'll just get myself some of that delicious food from the cafeteria, and come join you."

Buffy snorted and let him leave this time.

Dawn was more awake that morning, and they spoke to her for a while before Spike insisted that they leave and get Buffy settled at Angel's hotel. Xander and Anya waved good-bye to them as well, planning to stay with the youngest Scooby for a while longer.

Pushing Buffy's wheelchair, Spike got them to the elevator and then down to the parking garage. Not for the first time, he silently thanked the designers of underground parking lots. They made things so much easier for vampires. Not that he'd ever used them in this manner before, but just the same...

Angel's car, with a handsome young black man at the wheel, was waiting for them. Picking up Buffy effortlessly and positioning her in the front seat of the car, he stored her wheelchair in the trunk, then climbed into the back, closing the door and the blacked-out windows behind him.

The ride to Angel's was short, and when the pulled up, the black man, who had introduced himself as Charles Gunn, tossed a large blanket into the backseat. Spike grabbed it and covered himself hurriedly, then opened the door and made a dash for the front of the hotel.

Wesley appeared in the lobby, and Spike groaned. The ex-watched ignored the blond vampire, and walked by him into the sun, pulling Buffy's wheelchair from the trunk and closing up the car. Gunn pulled the Slayer from the front seat and settled her in the wheelchair, which he then pushed into the hotel.

Angel appeared at the top of the stairs then, his expression guarded. "Buffy. Spike."

"Sire."

"Angel."

The three-way stare continued for long moments until Cordelia came bursting from the door to their left. "Buffy!"

Buffy's face lit up. "Cordy!"

The brunette raced towards Buffy and bent down to pull her into a hug. When the Seer pulled away, her expression was somber. "I'm sorry about the others, Buffy," She said sincerely. "I didn't know them that well, but I'll miss them."

Buffy nodded. "Thanks."

Chatting quietly about nothing, Cordelia showed Buffy to her room. It was Wesley's office, redecorated because there were no bedrooms on the first floor, but Buffy said that it seemed homey, and she was glad to be here. Cordy beamed, telling Buffy that the posters had been her idea, and that 'the guys' had been going to put plain white sheets on the bed before she insisted on the flower patterned ones. She wrinkled her nose a little as she told the slayer this.

"I know, flowers, not really all butch and slayer-like," She rambled on. "But it was that, plain white, or Angel's favorite color. Black."

Buffy smiled. "Thanks, Cordy. I like it." The brunette stopped talking long enough to look down at the slayer, a sincere smile on her face. 

"I'm glad."

Having followed the girls through this whole tour of Buffy's living quarters, Spike and Angel now intruded on their chatter. "Are you all settled in, Buffy?" Angel asked. The Slayer nodded. "Good. Then I'll just show Spike where he can stay, and I'll be right back."

The dark-haired vampire led Spike upstairs and to the second room by the staircase. Sensing the younger vampire's argument before he could utter a word, Angel held up a hand. "I know you want to be as close to Buffy as possible. But the first room is mine. I don't trust you."

Spike nodded. He wasn't wounded, the older vampire was smart enough to know not to trust his childe, and he wasn't offended by that. Couldn't be, not when he supposedly took pride in being the thing that Angel didn't trust. "Yes, sir!" He answered sarcastically.

Throwing the door open, Angel stood outside. "This is what you get to call home for a while, Will. Have fun." Then, a slight stalk in his movements, he turned away and walked back down the stairs.

Spike dumped his one bag of things in the corner, it contained a few books he'd rescued from the Magic Box and Giles's apartment, another pair of jeans, and the keys to his DeSoto, should he ever want to go back to Sunnydale on the off-chance it still ran. And wasn't hopelessly buried in rubble. 

Looking around the room, he sighed. Obviously, Angel still didn't like him very much. There was nothing in the room besides the bed and a nightstand. There were dark, heavy drapes, but they weren't at all aesthetically pleasing. They were thick sheets of black material, pinned in place. The sheet had a white quilt, under which Spike was sure were starched and pressed white sheets, straight from the box. The carpet was very, very old pile, puke green. The walls were a stark white, and the light came from a bare lightbulb hung above the bed. Spike wouldn't have been surprised to find a pull-cord, but it turned out it was connected to the switch.

After turning three-hundred and sixty degrees, taking his 'room' in slowly once over, Spike flicked the switch off, closed the door behind him, and went downstairs to see if Angel had cable television.

Over the next few days, Spike and Angel pretty much stayed out of each other's way. When Angel was visiting Buffy, Spike would park himself in front of the television in the lobby and wait, when Spike was helping Buffy, the souled vampire would almost always forget that he had something pressing to do and would come back later. Buffy would have laughed if it wasn't so pathetic.

On the third day, Spike was preparing to help her into and out of the bath. Previously Cordy had done it, but today she had had a vision and was in no shape to help. So, nervously, the vampire reminded himself that there wasn't anything here he hadn't seen. Buffy had needed his help to dress and undress every morning and night. She'd been bared to him plenty of times before. 

The argument didn't work particularly well on his nerves.

Then Spike realized what he'd been forgetting to tell himself. That Buffy trusted him, and he could not to abuse that trust. Setting her down on the closed toilet, his nerves calmed a little, though he didn't even notice his body sucking in a totally unnecessary breath out of anxiety.

Buffy did, though. "Are you okay?"

Spike silently cursed himself. "Yeah, fine, pet."

"Do you want me to get Angel to help?"

That did it. "No. I'm really fine, love." That said, Spike lifted her, one hip at a time, and slid her out of her pants and underwear, just as she finished undressing her top half, herself. He tried his best not to stare as he lowered her slowly into the bathtub, giving her a chance to wince and tell him to pull her out if it was too hot. Settling her on the bottom of the large tub, he handed her the soap. She handed it back to him.

Spike looked at the bar of soap in his hands and then at Buffy, who was either entirely calm or doing a remarkable approximation of it. His puzzled look must have given him away, because she took pity on him, and explained. "I don't think I can reach my feet," She said. "Can you wash them, and my lower legs, too?"

Spike just nodded, not trusting his voice at that moment. Rubbing the soap slowly between wet hands, he pulled one foot out of the water, and starting rubbing his hands over her smooth skin. Pressing between her toes and massaging her feet gently as he bathed them, his hands crept slightly nervously up her legs. They were rough with stubble from not being shaved, but he didn't mind.

The vampire repeated this with her other leg, and then, thoroughly shaken, handed the bar of soap back to Buffy and dried his hands. "Just... just call when you're ready to get out, right pet?"

Buffy nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

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Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	6. Chapter Six

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

Every day, Gunn, Wesley, or Cordelia drove Buffy to physical therapy. They'd chosen the latest time possible, but as such, it was still light when they had to leave. Spike or Angel would go pick her up, though. Since she knew that the vampires would have fought over it, Cordelia kept a firm hold on the keys to the car, and therefore, controlled any outbreaks that might occur over who's turn it was to pick up the slayer.

Dawn was getting better, too. Some days, Spike snuck through the tunnels into the hospital, and went up to see her. She was always glad for his company, and she often regaled him for hours about the absolutely nothing that occurred in the hospital. The only conclusion Spike could draw out of this was that the teen was desperately bored, and he made a valiant effort to be there even more often than he was.

The surgeries were over, but as her leg was still only splinted, because of the not-yet-healed surgical wounds, Dawn wasn't allowed to move. This bothered her to no end, especially after a few days had passed. Then, one day when Spike was draping his coat over the chair and wondering what could possibly have gotten his bed-ridden Little Bit so cheery, she told him that the doctor was going to cast her leg and she could get in a wheelchair and move around.

After that, she made Spike push her around almost every time he was there. She could navigate her floor of the hospital by herself, but her strength wasn't as endless as Buffy's, and she got tired quickly. Plus, she frequently got bored with the single floor, and she couldn't manage the elevator on her own. Spike, for his part, tried to be a good sport, knowing that Dawn was every bit as bored as he was.

One day, when he showed up, Dawn was sitting in her wheelchair, waiting for him, a big smile on her face. "Spike! Guess what? The doctor says I can go somewhere today?"

The doctor, who was still prodding her foot lightly, the only part of her leg not fully encased in the cast, looked up and smiled. "You have to stay close, Dawn. A walk around the block, or maybe to the roof. But I'm sure you're getting bored with the inside of this hospital."

Dawn nodded enthusiastically. "You bet I am! So, Spike?"  
Spike looked at her, trying not to burst her bubble. "That's great, pet. But it's light outside, and you know how easily I burn in the sun." He said this last part with emphasis, casting a look at the doctor as he spoke. 

"I know, but there's an awning around the edges of the roof! Come with me, please?"

Spike waited for the doctor to jot something on the chart, and then leave. Then he turned back to Dawn. "Pet, it isn't safe. If something happened to you, I couldn't get you in out of the sun."

Dawn threw her comforter at him. "Here. Take this. I've seen you come to places covered in a blanket enough times to know this ought to work. And no more excuses! I haven't seen the sun in months!"

Spike laughed. "I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, love. It's only been two weeks."

Dawn shrugged, and started to wheel herself out of the room. "C'mon, Spike, please?"

Sighing, the vampire followed her.

Pushing Dawn to the elevators and riding them to the top floor, Spike exited carefully, under the comforter. "It's okay," Dawn told him. "We're still inside."

Spike pulled off the quilt, unaware and uncaring of the looks the people around him gave. "What the hell? It's the bloody roof, ain't it?"

Dawn smiled. "The door's over there," She said, pointing. "C'mon."

Without answering, the vampire followed her. Holding open the door carefully, he looked around outside. With a short sprint, he could reach a patch of shade in the corner. Waving to Dawn, he waited until she'd come back close enough for him not to shout. "I'll be over there, okay, bit?"

Dawn nodded, and grinned, throwing her arms up into the air. "This is great!" She shouted.

Smiling himself, despite the imminent journey across the sun, Spike watched her for a moment. Then, covering himself tightly with the comforter, he dashed the ten feet from the door into the shade, and stood there for a moment before daring to take the quilt off. When he did, he saw Dawn watching him, waiting for a signal that he was okay.

Panting a little, more from the adrenaline than from any kind of exertion, he waved to her. "I'm good, little bit!" He shouted. Dawn nodded and started wheeling her chair around the roof with crazy abandon that only being kept inside for two weeks could do to a person. Spike smiled at her, but concern creased his face.

"Slow down, pet! You'll knock the chair over!"  
Dawn's hair was flowing around her face, but Spike could see she was grinning. "No I won't!" She yelled back, and made an abrupt about-face. "See?! I've been in this chair so long I could make it do a spin without falling over!"

Spike frowned. "Dawn, don't do anything bloody stupid!" He yelled back.

Dawn's grin collapsed, and Spike felt a little bad, but it was better than her injuring herself again, he reminded himself. 

"God, have a sense of humor!"

"Already got one, pet. It just doesn't like seeing Summers' women take it hard on the chin, remember, love?"

Dawn broke into a little smile at that. "Yeah. I remember." She wheeled her chair closer. "Can we just sit out here for a while, Spike?"

The vampire nodded. "I have to be back at six to get the car, so I can stay for about another hour," he told the Slayer's sister. Dawn nodded, and pulled her chair up right next to him.

Spike pushed the wheelchair against the end of the bench, and sat down, careful to stay in the shade. Putting an arm gently over Dawn's shoulders, he pushed her head down a little, and without further urging, she laid it to rest on his shoulder.

Warm feelings flowed through the vampire, warm feelings that he had gotten used to recently. Protective feelings. They were about both Dawn and Buffy, but more about Dawn, really. He wanted to keep Buffy safe, but somehow, he didn't feel responsible for her welfare in all areas the same as he did her sister. He wanted to keep Dawn from any hurt, physical, emotional or mental. Buffy, he knew could take care of herself. It was more like he was just helping her out for a little while, while with Dawn, he knew he'd take care of her forever, if he could.

Spike knew that Buffy couldn't live forever. She'd died once already, and he doubted she could live through another death. Close calls came from every angle, and even if she did make a third life, she couldn't keep getting chances. Eventually, she would be gone for good, and Dawn would have no one except her deadbeat father.

Then, Spike promised himself, then there would be no one except _him_ and her deadbeat father. He would keep Dawnie safe to the ends of the earth, he knew, and when there was no one left, he'd swear to her she'd always have him.

A little voice at his side awoke him from his thoughts. "What'cha thinkin' about?"

"Nothing."

"Not true. I can tell."

"It's nothing, pet. Really."

A week and a day later, it was again Spike's turn to pick up Buffy from physical therapy. Her class let out at six-thirty, but the sun was setting later and later these days, so Spike begged until he was allowed to take Angel's car, which was already vampire-proofed. Eventually, mostly because Spike wouldn't shut up, the souled vampire gave in. 

"But if you get any dents in it that aren't demon-related, I'm going to stake you," He warned. Spike just smirked like he always did, grabbed the dangling keys, and headed away.

Reaching the hospital, Spike parked in the underground garage, and again, blessed whoever had thought of these blessings to vampires. Of course, not many vamps were using them for the honorable purposes that he was, but still. A fellow could fight his own, kill his own, even hate his own, but he could never really forget what he was. Especially not when what he was, was what Spike was.

Walking into the hospital, Spike wandered upstairs until he found Buffy's class. Leaning against the wall, he waited until the class was to be let out.

About five minutes after he'd gotten there, a white-coated, slightly nervous-looking intern came into the room and started looking around. Eventually, she called out. "Spike? Is there a... Spike... here?"

Snapping to attention, Spike took two brisk strides in her direction. "Yeah, I'm here. Is the Slayer-I mean is Buffy, alright?"

The intern nodded. "She wants to see you."

Puzzled, Spike nonetheless followed the intern into what he knew was Buffy's physical therapy room. And there was Buffy, standing and waiting for him.

Standing.

A tight grip on the arm of a woman who was suited up like a doctor, she was, nonetheless, standing on her own.

Rushing to her, Spike stopped short just as he was about to grab her. "Slayer..." He breathed. "Oh god, Slayer."

He wasn't about to say it, but Spike had been scared that Buffy might not get her strength back. That she might not be the Slayer he wanted to call her, again. That he might not get his favorite vampire-hunter back.

Buffy grinned. "Hey, Spike." She looked at the way he was holding back from touching her. "It's okay."

Spike looked like he'd just been snapped out of a daze. "What? Oh." With only that to say, he grabbed her from the doctor, swung her around once, put her down and kissed her quickly.

Buffy, still grinning, looked a little puzzled. "Well, I knew you'd be pleased, but I wasn't expecting that," She told him.

Spike held her up, but stepped back a little. "Sorry, pet."

Buffy shrugged. "No big."

Spike caught her eye again, and noticed that the doctor had moved off to help another patient. Surprised to find she wasn't angry, he smiled tentatively at her. "I'm glad for you, love."

Buffy grinned at him, full-force returning to her radiant smile when he reminded her of the reason she'd been swung around and kissed. "I know. I'm so happy, Spike! I wish everyone were here to see..." Her voice trailed off.

Watching her body language as well as her face, Spike was ready to catch her when she collapsed. Tears started running down her face, and the always-strong Slayer started to sob in her arch-nemesis arms. Sinking slowly to the floor, Spike took Buffy with him, and cradled her tiny form in his arms. "I'm sorry, pet," he whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Another week after that, Dawn came to the Hyperion to live with Angel's crew, plus Buffy and Spike. The cast on her leg had been reduced a bit, but it still covered her significantly. Carefully, Gunn unloaded her from the car, and Cordelia pushed her into the hotel, where Buffy, now standing with a walker, was waiting, Angel and Spike at her sides.

When they were fully inside, the doors closed, Buffy lifted a hand from the walker, and grabbed at Angel. Getting the message, the vampire wrapped an arm around her waist and held her carefully up, as they made there way slowly towards Dawn. Once there, Angel helped her bend over and hug her sister. 

"I'm so glad to see you, Dawnie." Tears were running down the Slayer's face. Angel stepped back, leaving the moment to the sisters who'd lost so much. Spike, however, hadn't noticed much since the Slayer had made for Angel's arm instead of his.

"Hello, bit," He said gruffly. "Would stay and celebrate, but I got things to do." With that, he trotted out of the room.

Looking up and grabbing Angel's arm for balance, Buffy glared after the vampire. "Well, that was rude."

Dawn shrugged. "It's okay."

Buffy looked like she wanted to go after him, and was incredibly frustrated when she remembered she couldn't. "No, it's not. Spike! Get back here!"

Dawn put out a hand, and rested it on her sister's arm. "Buffy."

The Slayer looked down at her little sister. "Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Buffy nodded, and motioned for her walker. Pushing it to her, Angel placed it in her hands, and made sure that she was steady before letting go and drawing his crowd into Wesley's office. Buffy smiled at him as they went, grateful for the privacy.

"Is there something you need to say, Dawnie?" The Slayer asked, concerned.

Dawn smiled a little knowingly, something that Buffy wasn't really sure she liked. If there was something to know, she should know about it. "He's jealous, Buffy."

Of all the things the Slayer had thought she might hear out of her little sister's mouth, that wasn't one of them. "What?"

"Spike. He's jealous."

Buffy drew herself a little taller. "Of what?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "What do you think?"

The Slayer finally put two and two together. "Angel? But there's nothing there anymore. I mean... I wish, but we have separate lives now." Her voice trailed off, sadly.

Dawn wasn't deterred. "Yes. You did. And now you don't. And how do you think Spike feels about it?"  
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know. Xander and Anya don't seem to have a problem with it."

Dawn's frustration bursting out of her skull, she raised her voice and stared at her sister. "How dense can you be, Buffy? He loves you, alright? As in _loves_ you loves you."

Buffy's denial kicked in full-force again. "No he doesn't," She said. "He can't."

Dawn rolled her eyes again, higher and harder than last time. "He _told_ you. God, Buffy. You'd think being the Slayer would require _some_ brains, but no, your kid sister figured it out before you did."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"You don't have to like it, Buffy. But you have to admit it's true."

"No I don't!" Pause. "Except the part where, well, you know, I do."

A long moment of silence reigned in the lobby. Then Buffy spoke again. "You really think he does?"

"I really _know_ he does."

"How?"

Dawn smirked. "He talks to me. And I'm under oath not to repeat any of this, but I thought it was warranted."

The Slayer threw her head back in desperation. "Great."

Dawn looked puzzled. "What? I think it's kind of cute. And you're getting to tolerate him, aren't you?"  
Buffy nodded. "Yeah. But I could never think of him... you know, _that_ way."

Dawn laughed. "Sure you can't. Come on, Buffy, it's not like Angel's listening in on us. You've got to admit he's got a body to die for."

"Dawn!" There was a pause. Then, a smirk creeping over her face, the Slayer relented. "Well, yeah, I guess he kind of does." But then the seriousness of the situation overcame her. "But he's a monster. And not to mention the fact that, vampire plus slayer equals love? Been there, done that, didn't work out very well."

Dawn's pleading face looked up at her sister. "Buffy, you know it's true. He's certainly proved himself to you, more than once. Just think about it, okay?"

Buffy stared down at her sister, trying to get her to relent with her piercing gaze. But Dawn wasn't giving in, and eventually, the Slayer was forced to. Sighing, she nodded reluctantly.

"I'll try."

* * *

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* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	7. Chapter Seven

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

Life, and unlife, went on quite smoothly in the Hyperion. Though the hotel was distinctly more busy than before, there was no semblance of crowding. After all, it was built to accommodate large numbers of people, and even with Spike, Buffy and Dawn moving in, only four people lived permanently there, plus the three who came and went.

Buffy and Dawn sometimes complained about having to live together, but there was really nothing anyone could do about that. There was only one room downstairs, so they had to share it. Angel, however, promised them any room they wanted as soon as one of them was able to make it up the stairs alone, and it became sort of a race to recover first.

One day, Cordelia got the idea that Buffy and Dawn, who had been moping around the house for days, complaining about never going anywhere, needed an Angel-sponsored shopping trip to bring up their spirits.

"Come on, Angel?" She whined. 

Angel shrugged. "Why don't you go talk to Wesley, Cordelia? I don't own this business anymore, remember?"  
"But you have lots of money, and I want some."  
"You don't need any money, Cordelia. Granted, you're not living the life of the rich and famous, but you're financially secure."

"It's not for me. Buffy and Dawn need to get out."  
Angel shook his head a little. "I'd give you the money, but it's not safe, Cordy."

"Why not? It's broad daylight. I wasn't thinking of taking them shopping in the back-alleys of LA, you know."

Angel shook his head again, a little sadly. "Buffy can't take care of herself anymore. Dawn never could. And Spike and I can't go with you."  
Cordelia was getting exasperated. "Angel. It's downtown LA. There's like a million people there, and even if a demon shows up which it won't, because it's broad daylight, we can get away."

Angel shook his head once more, this time silent, letting his look convey what was going through his head. 

"We'll take Gunn and Wesley!" Cordelia's last attempt at making this work.

Angel smirked a little. "You will."

"You know that no man can resist my subtle charms."

Angel looked at her for a moment, like he was trying to assess whether she was telling the truth, and then shrugged. "Alright. If you can get Gunn and Wesley to go with you, and promise me none of you will be left alone at any time, I'll supply the money to fund this little operation."

Cordy gave a little shriek of happiness, and jumped in the air, grabbing Angel around the neck. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She cried.

Angel smiled tolerantly, while he waited for her to stop hanging from his neck. "You're welcome. But you still have to get Wes and Gunn to agree."

Cordelia dropped her body from her hold on her former boss's shoulders, and turned away. Swaying her hips a little, he smirked at Angel. "They'll come."

Angel watched her go, wondering what had happened to the sixteen-year-old Cordy he'd know in Sunnydale.

Buffy and Dawn were, not surprisingly, thrilled to hear about Cordy's plan. They proceeded to launch themselves on Angel, showing him with thanks, while he constantly reminded them about the terms of the agree. Ignoring him, they then happily planned which shops they were going to go to first, what they 'needed', and all the while, schemed about ways to make Wesley and Gunn go with them.

Dawn pointed excitedly at her feet. "I need new boots," She said. "I want black leather calf-high ones."

Buffy sobered a little. "Dawn, we're going to be using Angel's money. We can't buy too much."

Cordy waved her off. "Oh, he's rolling in dough. We can spend however much we want. If you really feel guilty, you can promise to pay him back and then not do it. But don't let money stand between us and our wonderful shopping trip plans!"

Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed a little. Then she smiled. "Alright," She conceded. Then, brighter, "Where were we?"

At three that afternoon, Wesley and Gunn piled in the front door, covered in goo and slime. After dropping their weapons carefully, shedding as much of their clothing as possible while still being decent, and wiping their faces with the towels Angel handed them, they trooped up the stairs, and in moments, the sounds of two showers being run could be heard.

Buffy, Cordy, and Dawn looked at each other and decided that tomorrow might be better.

After Angel picked Buffy up from physical therapy that evening, Spike unveiled a surprise. Walking right into the girls' room, since their door was open, he was met with the sight of the sisters chatting about absolutely nothing, from what he could hear, and Buffy doing her stretching.

"Nice, Slayer," He told her as he casually strolled into the room. Buffy was lying on her side, propped up on her elbow, and stretching her leg up in the air. The vampire knew that she wasn't quite back to what was normal for her, but it was impressive for a human. Even if said human was the slayer.

Buffy dropped her stretch and laid back against the pillows, looking up at him. "Hey, Spike."

Dawn watched them, not saying a thing.

There was comfortable silence in the room as Spike rummaged around in his prized leather duster and finally pulled out three thin strips of paper. Then the questions started.

"What's that?"

"Are we going somewhere?"

"Did you do something wrong, Spike?"

Spike smiled, the last having been said in jest. Turning his head to the Slayer first, then to her sister, and back to Buffy, he answered them all. "They're tickets, yes, we are going somewhere, provided you want to, and no, I didn't do anything wrong. That I'm aware of yet."

Dawn pushed her chair up towards Spike, trying to see the tickets in his hand. "Where are we going?" She asked.

Buffy was a little more practical. "When are we going?"

Spike looked at the sisters. He wasn't sure if they'd want to go that night, physical therapy looked tiring. But, from experience, he knew that the Slayer usually came out of it invigorated, and that Dawn had been bored to death that day, and that tonight might be a good time. "Tonight, if you want."

Dawn's eyes went wide. "Of course we want! Right, Buffy?"

Buffy smiled at her sister. Then she looked up at the vampire, gratitude in her eyes, something Spike wasn't sure if he'd ever see there, facing him. "If you want to, I'm good." Pause. "Thanks, Spike."

There was a moment of silence as both parties recognized this step in their friendship, and then Dawn broke it with all the impatience of a cooped-up teenager. "What are we doing?" She asked.

Spike grinned. "Well, pet, I have reservations at the best Italian restaurant in the city" little shrieks from both girls, "and the tickets are to a local production of Romeo and Juliet."

"Yeah!"

"When are we leaving?"  
Spike looked at the watch that Angel had made him wear. At first, he'd just carried it around, to show his sire that he didn't take orders, but after a while, it had gotten to be a real pain, and he'd started wearing it. "In about half an hour," He said. "So, I'll just leave, and you girls can put on your makeup or take a shower, or whatever it is you do to get ready."

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!"

Spike grinned. "You're welcome, little bit. I know you're bored here."

Dawn nodded fervently. "You bet I am."

Spike waved the tickets once more, and then stepped out of the room, calling back over his shoulder. "Half an hour, girls! Then we need to go."

When Buffy and Dawn were ready to leave, they went to the lobby to wait for Spike. He wasn't there, but it hadn't been half an hour yet, and they weren't worried. They smiled anxiously and exchanged little looks and "how do I look?"s and Buffy danced from foot to foot standing behind her walker until Dawn reminded her not to wear herself out.

When Spike walked down the stairs, Buffy was looking away and Dawn was the first to see his appearance. Putting the fingers of her uninjured hand deep in her mouth, she blew, hard. A piercing whistle filled the lobby and startled the Slayer, who jumped. Turning around to see what was there and ready to chastise her younger sister for the noise at the same time, she was struck breathless at the sight that greeted her.

The vampire was grinning proudly as he took the last couple of steps. He was wearing a real tux, something that Buffy had been absolutely sure she'd never see him in, and his white-blond hair was slicked back with even more gel than usual. Dawn almost smiled at the irony. Like father like son... not! True, they both wore gel in their hair, but Spike wore it to make curly, unmanageable hair stay put, and Angel wore it to make flat, boring hair stand up. 

When Buffy got her voice back, the first thing she did was close her mouth. This time, Dawn did laugh, but offered no explanation when Spike looked at her, wondering what she younger Summers girl found funny.

Bowing dramatically to first Buffy, then Dawn, the grin on Spike's face never faltered. Then, getting behind Dawn's wheelchair, he looked at Buffy. "Ready, love?"

She nodded. Spike walked slowly, pushing the chair slowly as Buffy walked steadily, if not exactly quickly, beside them. When they made it to the car, Spike loaded Buffy into the front seat, took her walker and folded it up. He then put it in the trunk, and returned to Dawn. Picking her up and depositing her into the seat, he folded her wheelchair as much as it went, and stuck it in the trunk, too. Then he climbed into the driver's seat of Angel's car, and off they went.

Dinner was fun, and Buffy and Dawn watched as the vampire sampled everything he possibly could. Eating sugar, NutraSweet and another, generic non-sugar sweetener and then arguing about which one was better and how they tasted, made up most of the time before they were served for him and Dawn. Buffy, for her part, just watched, most of the time smiling, trying not to think about her dead friends on this happy occasion. 

By the time dinner was over, Spike had eaten breadsticks with both marinara and alfredo sauce, plus trying it with the salad dressing, salad, fettuccine alfredo, cheese ravioli, veal parmesan, coke, both regular and diet, sprite, and both chocolate and angel's food cake. Of course, it wasn't all his, a great part of it was him having traded bits of his meal (the veal parmesan) for bits of Buffy and Dawn's. He said it had been a long time since he'd been in an Italian restaurant, and whether they believed him or not, the Summers girls indulged him.

When the dessert menu came, Spike wanted the chocolate cake, but couldn't resist eating something that was named after his grandsire, he'd decided. So they got two desserts to split three ways, though Spike claimed the biggest portion of the angel food cake, because, he told them, '"My sire's been a pain in my bleeding ass for longer than either of you have been alive, so it's only right that I get to vicariously obliterate the biggest piece of him."'

Buffy laughed, and Dawn snorted. Spike grinned harder, and handed her a napkin. "Careful, little bit. Wouldn't want your big sis to think I'm a bad influence on you, she might make me leave." He was joking, but the younger Summers sister could see the seriousness in his eyes as he spoke. She chose not to say anything, not wanting to ruin the evening, but she vowed to speak to her sister later. It wasn't fair. Spike had done nothing but help them out for the past six months, and he was still worried that Buffy might get fed up with him and kick him out.

The play was sad and well acted, and Dawn cried. Buffy, too emotionally numb to let tears fall down her cheeks, nonetheless cried inside, and Spike leaned over and took her hand. She was surprised at first, but then settled in, realizing that he didn't want anything else, he didn't have any ulterior motives, the vampire just wanted to comfort her. Smiling a little, she let him hold onto her.

When they were piling into the car again, ready to leave for Angel's mansion, Dawn yawning and Buffy looking decidedly sleepy herself, Spike smiled as he looked at what he thought of as 'his' girls, and hoped they'd had a good time. Hoped he'd managed to take their minds off things for a bit, even though he knew they never entirely forgot what happened in Sunnydale.

The drive to Angel's was longer than any of them had expected, as they seemed to catch every stoplight along the route, and though the only thing that happened to Spike was that he got frustrated and cranky, both of the girls fell asleep. When he pulled up in front of the hotel and realized that, a happy little smile broke out on his face, and he just watched them for long moments, Dawn looking remarkably childlike, and Buffy calm and regal in her sleep.

Then, waking Buffy, he gathered her walker out of the trunk and helped her out of the car. Pulling the back door open, and effortlessly gathering the teenager into his arms, he motioned Buffy silently to head inside. They did, and as soon as they were inside, Spike left the Slayer's side to take Dawn to bed. Once he had lain her down gently on top of the covers and taken her one shoe off, he headed back out of the room, got her wheelchair, closed and locked the car, and came back.

Buffy had made her way into the girls' room by then, and Spike knocked softly on the door before coming in to Buffy's soft call. Dawn was changed, laying half under the covers in her nightgown, and Buffy was pulling hers out of the top drawer of the dresser. "Hey, Spike," She greeted him. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, pet."

She nodded, and there was silence in the room for a few long moments. Then, standing silently like the predator he was, Spike headed out of the room. "Good-night, love."

"Good-night, Spike."

* * *

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Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	8. Chapter Eight

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after the 'The Weight of the World'.

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

The next day, while planning their itinerary for the shopping spree, Dawn brought something up that, truth be told, neither of the older girls had actually thought about in a while. "When are you going to ask Gunn and Wes to come with us?" She said, pointing her question towards Cordelia.

Cordy stopped talking for a second, and shrugged. "Doesn't matter. They'll do it."

Buffy grew suddenly a little more serious. "Are you sure? It's a lot to ask of a guy to take three girls shopping."

Cordy flashed her dazzling smile at Buffy, and then returned to a normal expression. "They'll do it. For me."

Dawn grinned. "I hope so."

"Don't worry, Dawnie. We'll make sure you get out of the boring house, I promise."

"Promise?"

"I just said so!"

Dawn smirked. "Just checking."

Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest, and tried to look stern. "Now, do you want to go shopping, Dawnie?"  
"Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!"

It was Cordy's turn to smirk. "Then how should you be treating me?"

Dawn attempted a mock bow in her wheelchair. "With utmost respect, madam."

Buffy snickered, and contagiously, it spread through all three girls like wildfire. Soon they were doubled over with laughter, tears running from their eyes. It wasn't so much that the joke was that funny, but that they needed to laugh. It had been tense around the Hyperion, lately.

There was a knock on the open doorframe, and Spike stuck his head in. "Girls?" He asked. They looked up at him, looked back at each other, and burst into new fits of giggles. The vampire sighed, shook his head, and retreated.

When they had all calmed down a little, they wiped their faces, and Cordy went to talk to the guys. Spike reappeared, looking puzzled, and caught Buffy's gaze. "What was that all about, pet?"  
The Slayer waved a hand, dismissing it. "Oh, nothing. Just a little release of tension."

The vampire didn't get it, but he didn't push it, either. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure if he actually wanted to know any more.

Catching Dawn trying to put on a necklace and not quite able to, with the brace on her wrist, he took it from her gently. "I got it, Lil' Bit."

"Thanks."

Since the cast had come off Dawn's arm, she'd been able to do more for herself, but she still had to wear an inflexible brace, and often little, small motions asked for more dexterity than she could manage. 

A moment later, Cordy came dashing back into the room, beaming. "They said yes!"

Buffy looked at her ex-enemy and now-friend skeptically. "They did?"

"Yes!"

Dawn looked up as Spike smoothed her hair over the chain on the back of her neck. "Did you have to bribe them?"

Cordy's smile faded a little, but stayed mostly put. "Well, yeah, but so what? They're coming with us!"

Buffy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it doesn't matter _why_ they're coming. Just that they are. Yeah!"

Dawn looked up at Cordy, setting the piercing gaze only a teenager possesses upon the Seer. "You're not paying them with anything other than money, are you?"

Cordy shrugged, and looked back at her. Buffy, more used to her sister, caught Dawn's meaning. "Dawn!"

"Well, are you?" She ignored her older sister.

"What else would I be paying them with?" Buffy sighed, and waited for Cordelia to realize what Dawn was so rudely asking.

"Oh, I don't know, nude photos, voyeuristic videotape..."

"Dawnie!"

Dawn grinned. "Well?"

"No! And if I were, I wouldn't tell you. It would be none of your business."

"'Course it would be. It's how I'm getting this shopping trip and out of this boring mansion, and I don't want anything to jeopardize it."

Cordelia heaved a sigh almost identical to the one Buffy had made, and looked at the Slayer, who just shrugged. "What can I do?" She said.

"Well, put some duct tape over her mouth, for one thing!"

Dawn mock-pouted. Buffy smirked. Cordy looked irate. And Spike walked in at that very moment.

He took one look around the room, and walked back out.

The next day was a Saturday, and Buffy, Cordy, and Dawn were in there room getting ready to leave for this shopping trip. Wesley and Gunn were sitting sullenly in the lobby of the Hyperion, while Angel and Spike watched them, the former discreetly, the latter, joyfully.

Spike opened his mouth to say something, and Angel turned and shushed him before he could utter a sound. Spike glared, absolutely sure that there had to be some way to evade 'sire radar', but he hadn't found it yet. So he sat back in his chair, glowering, but within seconds, the looks on Gunn and Wes's faces put the gleeful smirk back on his own.

The girls emerged a moment later, Dawn in her wheelchair, Buffy now with crutches instead of a walker, and Cordy following them, uncharacteristically patient. They were all glowing with excitement, Dawn especially, and Wesley took one look at their happy faces and couldn't bring himself to ruin their day. Gunn didn't seem to feel the same moral obligation.

Standing, Wesley put a pained smile on his face, and held his arm out for Cordy. "Shall we go?" He asked, each word sounding like it was taking incredible will to force out. Spike smirked harder. Gunn went wordlessly behind Dawn's wheelchair, and the five started for the door.

"Have fun!" Angel called, trying to force sincerity into his voice, and trying to keep the mental smirk out of it. 

Spike felt no such need. He looked pointedly down at his watch, which showed ten-thirty in the morning, and then back to the girls. "See you about dinner-time?" He asked, grinning.

Gunn turned to him and simply shot daggers out of his eyes. Wesley faltered a little, seemingly stunned, but managed to mutter "yes, ah... I suppose..."

And then they were gone, and the vampires had the whole hotel to themselves.

The first sentence out of the older vampire's mouth was, "Don't say it."

"Say what?" Spike played the innocent almost well enough to be believed, if it weren't for the smirk that hadn't left his face since this whole idea had taken form.

"Whatever it was you were going to say. I don't want to hear it."

"You mean, the fact that you treat your employees this way?"

Angel sighed, and put down the book he was reading to stare at his grand-childe. "Spike, they're not my employees. I work for them now, remember?"

Spike grinned. "Yeah, Peaches, I remember. You went out and had yourself a proper vamp-style unlife for about a day, and then got all guilty and went groveling back to their feet."

Angel just glared.

Spike just continued to smirk.

At one, the girls were getting hungry, and Wes and Gunn were thoroughly bored. When the procession exited the last shop they'd been in, the Englishman perked up, looking at the large bags Cordy and Dawn carried, Buffy needing her hands to wield the crutches. Surely, this was all the shopping they could afford to do on Angel's money, he decided.

Gunn was a little more skeptical, and rightly so. Wesley's face fell so fast it was almost comical, as Cordy proclaimed cheerfully, "Lunch break!" She studiously ignored their plight, and Dawn seemed to buy into the same strategy.

Buffy was a little more considerate, since these weren't her friends, and she didn't feel like she could burden them without guilt, as Cordy and Dawn did. Cordy didn't seem to have any qualms about her behavior, saying that they owed her several times over for the visions, and Dawn, with typical teenage oblivion, stated that it was just shopping, it couldn't kill them.

"Are you guys okay?" She asked. "Do we need to take a break?" 

Well, she might feel a need to be considerate, but that didn't mean she wanted to stop shopping.

Wes put on a pained smile, and shook his head. "No, no. We're quite alright. Shall we go to lunch?" He asked, taking a few bags from Cordy and heading for the car. The others followed cheerfully, chatting about their purchases, and what they wanted to do with them.

After a quick lunch in a cute little Mexican food place, the girls directed Gunn, who was driving, to another shopping center, and the guys settled in for another round of standing outside boutiques and waiting to carry bags full of clothing. Buffy was looking a little shaky on her feet as they all piled out of the car, and Wesley insisted that she exchange her crutches for the walker, which she did, but not without protest. Gunn put Dawn back into her wheelchair, and Cordy pushed it as they all headed into the middle of the center.

It turned out that this particular shopping center, being in the middle of radical LA, had a magic store. Chaperoning the girls to their first destination, Wesley and Gunn left them trying to pick lingerie, the former rather red-faced by that point, and went to check out the magic shop. Gunn, more unflappable, just smiled and told Cordy that he liked the see-through set, to which she said, "Bite me!"

Gunn had just grinned and replied, "Don't tell Angel that. He might take you up on it." Then he and Wes had left a spluttering Cordy and a grinning Buffy and Dawn in Victoria's Secret, and headed across the center to their destination.

Wesley worried a little about leaving the girls, when their instructions from Angel were to keep an eye on them at all times, but Gunn pointed out that if they were to get in trouble for it, the only thing they would have to mention was that the girls were shopping Victoria's Secret, and Angel would only be able to splutter and blush himself. Wesley reluctantly conceded the point, and they went off in search of some more rare herbs that they were lacking, having used up in the last spell they cast.

At five-thirty, the group piled back into the car, five new bags among them, and a sixth, tiny one from Gunn and Wesley's magic store shopping. Cordy protested mightily as Gunn shoved bags into the trunk, telling him that he was ruining some of the finer clothes they'd bought.

"Well, what do you want me to do? There's no room left in here! You cleaned out every shop in LA!"

Cordy put her hands on her hips. "We did not! And don't squash the lingerie!"

Gunn smirked. "Might make for some interesting body... shapes if I bent them just right, huh?"  
Cordy smacked him warningly. "Just... don't!"

"Don't what?"

"Don't squash the lingerie, in fact, don't squash anything, and don't make jokes about women's boobs!"

Gunn's smirk still firmly in place, he just looked back at her. Nothing could deter his happy feelings now that the shopping trip was finally over. He mentally promised himself never to take another bribe from Cordelia, it wasn't worth it.

Cordy glared at him a little more, and then went around to the side of the car and got in, slamming the door behind her. Buffy turned around and noticed the glare. "What's wrong?"

"He's squashing our clothes!"

This elicited another smirk-filled argument between Gunn and Buffy, one which Wesley tried to mediate without success. Eventually, Gunn threw up his hands and walked away, telling Buffy that she could do it if she was so picky. 

"Good luck getting all that stuff in there _without_ squashing it!" He told her as he stalked away, not really angry, but certainly frustrated and a bit confused. He could never understand women, and he didn't seem to be getting any better at it.

Then again, Wesley kept telling him that demon-hunting was not the best way to meet normal women, and he was probably right.

But since when was Wesley's advice the one to take in regards to dating?

When they returned to the Hyperion, a rather pleasant surprise awaited them. Angel and Spike had apparently managed to put aside their differences, at least temporarily, and fix dinner. Buffy and Dawn, unaware that either vampire could cook, only gaped at the elaborate feast, while the others smiled and patted the chefs on the back.

After sitting down to their meal, Cordelia and Wesley offered to do the dishes, and the others sat chatting quietly for a few minutes. When the Seer and ex-watcher rejoined them, sliding back into their seats, people went quiet for a few moments, wondering what they should do with their evening.

Eventually Angel dug out a few bottles of old liquor from his cabinet, prompted by Spike's insisting that his sire still had to own _something_ 'fun'. Cordelia, Gunn and Spike dug into the Scotch as soon as it appeared, Buffy, Angel and Wesley slightly more hesitant, but eventually joining in.

An hour later, they were all a little tipsy, and Angel took away the alcohol bottle, denying refills. Dawn was bordering on the edge of tipsy herself, having stolen from Spike's glass when he wasn't looking, but she did her best to act normal, not wanting to tip the adults off to her condition.

At ten-thirty, the Monopoly board came out, but with so many people, the game was over pretty quickly. At midnight, they again sat, at a loss for what to do with the rest of their evening. No one suggested going to bed.

Eventually, with a smirk on his face, Spike piped up. "I have an idea."

Buffy looked at him warily, and Dawn eagerly. Cordy glared at him as well as she could, thoroughly drunk as she was, and Wesley looked nervous. "What?" Dawn asked.

"Let's play truth or dare!"

Angel looked down his nose at his grand-childe. "How old are we, Spike?"  
Spike shrugged carelessly. "I forget. It's hard to remember after the first century." He chuckled. "C'mon! You're never too old for truth or dare." Leering across the table at Buffy, he spoke holding her gaze with his ice-blue eyes. "Besides, we might learn some... interesting things."

There was silence at the table for a few moments, then Dawn piped up. "C'mon! It'll be fun."

Reluctantly, Cordelia nodded her head. "I guess we could. I mean, maybe I could get some good blackmail material..."

* * *

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* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	9. Chapter Nine

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

Everyone looked around the room at the others. As Gunn threw up his hands and said that there was no way he was getting involved, Wesley swayed in his seat and muttered, "I'm in."

"You're drunk."

"Yeah, well, I'm allowed tuh be. I'm ahn a-adult, rhmember, Angel?"

Angel shrugged, not really caring what dirty little secrets Wesley might reveal to the group. He was more concerned with what Wes might do to him in the morning if he found out his former boss hadn't even _tried _to stop him. Now that he'd tried, his duty was over. "Okay."

Buffy, looking a little panicky, shook her head quickly. "No! Not okay! Very not okay!"

Spike leered in her direction. "Well, shall we see about that, pet?" He looked around the table, taking a headcount. "Let's see. There's seven of us, and that's Wes, Cordy, Dawn's and my vote. Yah! That's more than half, Slayer. Let's play!"

"This isn't a democracy, Spike. Just because you get four votes doesn't mean we all have to play the game."

Spike pouted. "You'd really want to ruin everyone's fun like that?" The glare on Buffy's face told him he didn't really want to know what she thought about everyone's fun, if it involved truth or dare. He sighed. "Tell you what. The Bit, the Watcher, the Seer and I will all play, and if you three party-bums don't want to play, you don't have to." He grabbed Dawn's chair, and wheeled her out of the room. She didn't complain. A very drunk Wesley and an only slightly tipsy Cordelia followed him.

For long moments, the other three sat around the table, staring at each other silently. Then Gunn sighed, picked himself up from the table and walked resignedly towards the sounds of laughter from the lobby. Buffy and Angel exchanged glances, and followed.

When they were all settled in the chairs Spike, Cordy and Wesley had dragged in, Buffy stood up to list off the rules. "First rule is, keep it to a PG-13 level. Dawn's here." 

Dawn groaned. "Buffy! For god's sake, I go see R-rated movies all the time. It's not like I don't know stuff."

Buffy looked over at her. "PG-13. That's not negotiable." Dawn sat back in her chair and pouted, but didn't speak anymore.

"Next. Dares cannot involve anything dangerous, and nothing that takes all night."

Everyone nodded, more or less sober enough to follow the fairly simple idea, and Buffy eased her body back into her seat. 

Spike clapped his hands together and looked around the group. "Alright then, who's first?"

When no one volunteered, he nodded. "Okay then. I'll go first." His eyes wandered around the room, and settled on his likely victims one by one, making them squirm with his unrelenting gaze.

Internally, he was having a mental battle. He really wanted to ask Buffy something pressingly uncomfortable that she wouldn't reveal if she wasn't drunk, but he also wasn't sure how long she'd stick around if he pressed the issue. But his grand-sire... now there was someone he could probably torture for a long while before Ol' Broody got up and left. He'd probably think he deserved it, or something ridiculous like that. He grinned, and Angel groaned.

"Angelus..."

Angel closed his eyes, and looked at the ceiling. "Let's just get this over with, Spike."

Spike rubbed his hands. "Okay. Truth or dare, Angelus?"

Angel sighed, and then met his grand-childe's eyes. "Truth."

The younger vamp grinned even harder, making his face hurt. "When was the last time you drank human blood from a living person?"

Angel looked at his hands and didn't answer for a long time. Then, quietly, he answered. "A long time ago, when I did it for pleasure alone."

"That wasn't what I asked, Peaches."

Angel looked around the room, studiously avoiding everyone's gaze. "About six months ago."

Spike crowed. "That's great! That's bloody great! My poofy fruit of a grand-sire drank human blood more recently than I did." He grinned, staring down Angel. "On second thought, though, I'm slightly jealous." He pouted, like a small child, then perked up instantly. "Oh, well. We'd better get on with this." His grin returned full-force. "Peaches, it's your turn."

Angel looked around the room, trying to go for someone safe, someone whom he could ask _something_ safe. But there was no one in the room with whom he didn't share some tremendous, rather bloody history, except Dawn.

Eyes resting on the little fourteen-year-old, Angel prayed this would be easy and relatively painless. "Dawn," He asked. "Truth or dare?"

She stared right back at him, and smirked a little, oddly reminiscent of Spike. "Dare," She replied boldly. 

Angel blinked. He hadn't been expecting that. "Um..."

Dawn waited. 

"I dare you to... I dare you to paint Spike's fingernails orange." He grinned. This was wonderful. Getting back at Spike, and managing to find a fairly safe dare for the youngest member of the group.

Dawn rolled her eyes, then pulled something from below the seat of the wheelchair. Fishing through it, she found what she was looking for, and wheeled her chair triumphantly over to where the somewhat-cowering vampire sat, waiting.

"Niblet... this really isn't necessary..."

Dawn looked at him with the same look her mother had fixed her with more times than she could remember. "Yes, it is." Across the room, Cordelia piped up. 

"I totally agree. We're playing a game you suggested, by the rules you and Buffy outlined, I think this is the least that's necessary." Dawn smirked at Spike as she heard this, reminding him of what Angel had seen in the teenager just moments ago, unbeknownst to either vampire.

Slathering the polish on rather messily, Dawn put the gaudiest shade of orange that was in the hotel between her, Buffy and Cordelia, on the younger vampire's nails. He glared at her as she finished, a happy smile on her face, and she rolled back to where she'd been sitting before. "Now, can we have some real dirt? This 'walk-around-people's-feelings' stuff is getting boring. And Angel?" She turned to the older vampire, "That was a really lame dare."

Angel shrugged. "Sorry."

Dawn smiled. "No harm done. Especially since it's my turn." She licked her lips and rubbed her hands in a terrible imitation of what Spike had done earlier, and looked around the room, trying to select her prey. 

Eventually her eyes settled on Cordelia. Curious, she decided that she might as well ask her question, that was what the game was about, wasn't it? "Cordy, truth or dare?"

Cordelia sat up, ready to face the challenge head on, having realized from Angel's mistake that Dawn was neither going to take it easy on them, nor let them play gently with her. "Truth."

"What was the most outrageous thing you did in high school?"

"On the high school campus, or just those years?"

"Just those years."

The former cheerleader sat back in her seat, thinking for a moment. "I'm not sure. Dating Xander was pretty crazy. And joining the Scoobies was kind of outrageous, too. But I'm guessing those don't count." She looked over at Dawn, who shook her head. "Then, I'm not really sure. I think it might have been making out with Xander in a broom closet with Snyder like, six yards away."

Buffy gasped. "That's crazy!"

Cordy grinned. "What can I say? I had my moments of insanity. It's your fault. After all, who wouldn't go insane after belonging to a group of kids who fights demons as a hobby, for long enough?"

Buffy shrugged. "I thought we turned out well enough."

"Yeah? Look at us. We're kind of pathetic."

"We are not!"

The game deteriorated from there.

"That's not PG-13!"

"Yes it is. I asked who was the first person Spike slept with, not what position he used!" Angel was getting a little irate, though he didn't know quite why. It wasn't really important to him who his grand-childe had lost his virginity to, was it? But for some reason, he wanted to know the answer. Maybe because this was his first chance to catch up with his progeny in a hundred years. 

Or maybe it was just because of all the tension that automatically piled up when he and Buffy argued. About anything. That could have something to do with it.

"Angel!"

"If he'd just answer the damn question, we wouldn't have to do this!"

Dawn looked from one adult to another, a half-grin on her face. She didn't want to smile too wide, that would catch the attention of her fellow truth-or-dare players. But she was certainly enjoying herself. "Uh, guys?"

Everyone's attention snapped to her. She grinned harder. "This is kind of getting off the subject. Now, I think that if Spike just answers the question, then we could move on, okay? Buffy, it's not like I don't know what you guys are talking about."

Buffy nodded reluctantly, and Angel turned his gaze back to his estranged grand-childe. "So?" He inquired.

Spike squirmed in his chair, looking oddly recalcitrant. "I think I like the idea of a dare, Peaches."

Angel wasn't about to give in, though. "Nuh-uh. You asked for the truth, you're going to give the truth."

Spike looked down at his feet, and uncharacteristically muttered, "Dru."

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you?" Angel had heard the vampire perfectly, but he knew that the others might not have, and he wanted everyone to revel in the humiliation of his grand-childe. 

"Dru!" He repeated. "There! Happy, Poofter? Now everybody in this room knows that I was a bloody _loser_ 'til your crazy childe turned me. Was that the idea?"

Angel smiled. "Pretty much. But look on the bright side. It's your turn."

"Bloody good bright side," Spike replied sarcastically, but he was already looking around, trying to pick his next victim. "Niblet. I think you've been a while without a turn. How's about it?"

Dawn shrugged. "Sure. Truth, I guess."

"I didn't even ask the bleeding question yet!"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "There's only two answers, Spike. And I know what the question is. So. Truth. Whadda ya have to ask?"

Spike shrugged. "Dunno."

Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes again, theatrically. "Then why'd you ask me anyway?"

The vampire shrugged again. "'Cause I'm running out of things to ask anyone here." That wasn't true, but it was if he didn't want anyone to go storming off, or Buffy to end the game due to utter lack of PG-13 things to say.

"Well..." Dawn sat there, looking impatient, while the vampire tried to come up with something to ask. 

"I admit it, Niblet. I'm bloody stumped. You can have your turn."

Dawn grinned, knowing just what she was going to ask, but quickly erased it, trying not to clue Spike in. "Spike..."

"No!"

Dawn smiled. "It's only fair. You said it could be my turn."

The vampire lolled his head back against the edge of his chair, and nodded, his eyes closed. "Al-bloody-right."

"Truth or dare?" She asked.

Spike cracked an eye open at her, and she looked up at him as innocently as possible, trying not to convey what she was about to ask. Apparently it worked, because the vampire closed his eye again, and exhaled easily. "Truth."

Dawn grinned. "How old were you when you lost your virginity to Dru?"

"Dawn!" Her sister accused. 

"What?"  
"That's not... that's not an appropriate question."

Dawn looked around the room, hoping to find support.

Angel shrugged, not wanting to take sides. But Cordy spoke up. "I agree. It's how old he was. Nothing bad about that, unless he was like, you know, twelve, and we already know he was incredibly old."

Spike's eyes shot open at this. "Hey!"

Cordy shrugged. "It's true, isn't it?"  
The vampire couldn't deny that.

Dawn pressed on. "So?"

" 'So' what?"

" 'So' how old _were_ you?" Dawn asked, mimicking him.

Spike threw his head back again, and groaned. "I was twenty-four," He admitted quietly.

Everyone stared at him. As if it hadn't been enough of a revelation that he'd been turned a virgin, now he was admitting to being possibly the world's oldest one, as far as the crew in the room was concerned. He opened his eyes and looked at them gawking, and exploded. "What? What the bloody hell does it matter how old I was? Why is everyone so obsessed with my sex life, anyway?"

Buffy, looking like she was in some kind of trance, pointing at Dawn to make it clear who she was speaking to, but still looking at the blond vampire said, "Now Dawnie, there's a good age to lose your virginity."

Dawn snorted. "Yeah, right. Little Miss Patron Saint Buffy, this is coming from. You forget that I covered for you several times. You were less than three years older than I am now."

Buffy looked over at her sister, trying to play the mom. "That doesn't mean it was smart."

Dawn shrugged. "Probably not. But then again, neither is sleeping with a cursed vampire, is it?"

Everyone recoiled a little, and Dawn looked at her handiwork with satisfaction. She'd successfully broken the fragile truce between Buffy and her two vampire suitors, and hopefully now, they'd have to talk.

And if they had to talk, they'd have to face their feelings.

* * *

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* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	10. Chapter Ten

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Okay. Truth or dare is cliche. But I love reading truth or dare stories, so I figured if I wrote, one, someone else would get a kick out of it. Plus, it's always a good way to air things out. : )

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

"What the hell was that for, Dawn?" Buffy asked, looking a little hurt. Dawn cringed inwardly, but put up her strong, teenage-brat front on the outside, determined to see her plan through.

"Just the truth."

Buffy looked away from her sister and shook her head in disgust. "Pardon her," She said to the group. "I think she's tired and ready for bed."

"I'm not a little child, Buffy."

"Then don't act like one!"

"I'm not," Dawn told her sister calmly. "I'm just airing out things that the rest of you are afraid to talk about, because this hotel is getting really tense. Now, may I please stay up?"

Buffy looked at Dawn, her expression reflecting equal parts confusion and annoyance. "Yeah. I guess you may."

The room fell silent again, and Dawn just waited, sure that her plan would work. But when someone finally broke the silence, it was Cordelia, something _not_ on the list of 'things that might happen next'. "So, are we still playing?"  


Everyone roused a little at that, and Dawn seethed inwardly. The trance-like state of shock and emotion was broken, and Spike looked around the room and shrugged. "Guess so, pet. That would make it my turn, right?" When no one objected, a slow smile spread across his face, and he started to survey the room.

Dawn cursed silently. Her plan had failed this time, but she _was_ going to make it happen.

An hour later, Spike could feel the game drawing to a close, and decided that it was time to bring out the touchy questions for Buffy. After all, if she ran off now, the game was almost over anyway. He smirked with a bit of his trademark evil grin, and Buffy recoiled a little, as much as she was capable while sitting in her seat. "Okay, why do I get the feeling that Spike, wearing that look, is not a good thing?" She asked nobody in particular.

Angel piped up without turning his head to address the Slayer, just watching Spike carefully, too. "Because it's not."

"Damn."

Through all of this, Spike still wore the same devilish grin.

"Slayer... truth or dare?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, not quite sure what she was getting into, and was about to say 'truth' when something impulsive exploded inside her brain and she said "Dare." 

Spike's eyes widened in surprise, but he had a dare ready for the possibility she might do this, however slim he'd thought it was. A bloke had to be ready for anything in a game such as truth or dare, that was his motto. "Alright, then. Here goes." He rubbed his hands together, and looked her full in the eye. "You have to kiss Peaches, and then me, and then tell the room honestly which one was better."

Buffy's eyes flew open to saucers. "What? No!"

Spike stayed firm. If he played his cards right... the Slayer might be just drunk enough to do this... "You asked, pet."

"Well, now I'm un-asking! That's a totally not-fair dare, Spike!"

He leered at her. "Sure. Probably is. But truth or dare isn't really about fair, now is it, Slayer?"  


Buffy looked down at her hands, and now that Spike couldn't see her eyes, he wasn't sure what was going through her head. He sent a glance at Dawn, hoping she would intercept it and interpret it for what it was. 

She did. "Buffy..." She taunted. "Remember a certain conversation?" She caught her sister's eye, and tried to transfer a meaningful look. Buffy got it, but didn't seem to see it in quite the same light she did.

"That has nothing to do with this!" She insisted. "Nothing at all!"

Spike piped up again. "Tell you what, Slayer. I'll give you a choice. Tell us what you and the Bit are talking about, or kiss me and Angel like I already said."

"No!" Buffy looked around the room for support, but didn't find any. "I won't."

Nobody answered her, and she sat there, looking furious and righteous for a long moment before she realized that nobody was paying any attention to her at all, and everyone was just waiting for her to calm down before they tuned back in. She sighed. "Alright. I'll do it."

Spike leered. "Which one, Slayer?"

She looked at him as though he were distasteful, and watched him out of the corner of her eye as she spoke to the room. "I'll kiss you."

Spike kept his expression carefully neutral, while inwardly jumping for joy.

Buffy stood reluctantly, but Spike shook his head and motioned for her to stay seated. "There are some rules to this, pet."

The Slayer groaned, rolled her eyes and tossed her head back. "What?" She groaned.

Spike grinned now that she wasn't looking at him, and Angel glared at his grand-childe. "One, it can't take less than ten seconds." Buffy groaned, but didn't reply. "Two, it must involve at least light tongue." At this, the Slayer's eyes flew open and her head forward. "What? No!"

Spike met her eyes and stared her down. "You asked, Slayer."

Buffy groaned again, harder, and slumped in her seat. _I can't believe I'm doing this. I must be really drunk._ "Alright, alright. Is that it?"

The platinum-blond vampire smirked, and nodded. "Yep. That's it."

Buffy rose even more reluctantly than before and headed for Angel. They could do this, couldn't they? After all, they'd been apart long enough, there should be enough distance to kiss and still stay separate. And as much as she hated to admit it, she and Angel were not exactly platonic best-friend types. They usually ended up kissing when they met, anyway. 

Sitting herself down on his knees, facing him, Buffy looked into her ex-lover's eyes. His pain reflected hers at the fact that this was unlikely to ever be real again, but at the same time, Buffy had a feeling that, oddly enough, this was going to be the easy kiss to get through. Wetting her lips delicately, she closed her eyes and leaned in.

Angel's soft lips pressed hers with gentle passion, and she could feel the fire blazing underneath his careful restraint. It was something that they'd both learned to tame after all this time together and apart, but their connection was strong enough, Buffy suspected it would always be strong enough, that they could still feel the tamped down emotion wanting release. When she opened her mouth gently and allowed his tongue entrance, fire spurted through her body, but pain followed in equal quantity. This was something that could never be, and it only hurt them both. Pulling away slowly, she opened her eyes lazily and stared into his eyes for a long moment before standing wordlessly and sitting on the other vampire's lap.

Spike didn't bother to disguise his leer as she sat down on his knees, nor had he bothered to even try and hide his jealousy as she'd sucked face with his grand-sire. She glared at him as he opened oogled her, but he'd expected that, even been trying for that reaction, so he didn't mind. If she was reacting to him at all, she felt something, and Spike was willing to settle for that, for now.

Staring him down, as if telling him to be good, Buffy just glared into the vampire's eyes for a long moment. Impatient as always, Spike rested his hands on his hips, and cocked his head sideways to ask when she was going to get on with it. "Slayer-"

She cut him off by pressing her lips to his. Even surprised as he was, Spike didn't forget to act immediately. Ten seconds wasn't a lot of time, and clearly she wasn't going to take the initiative in this kiss. Sliding his lips over hers, he let the passion he felt for her roam wild through his body, transferring as much of that fire as he could to her lips. Reaching out, he put his arms around her back and pulled her closer to him, and caught up in the kiss as she was, Buffy forgot to respond. Throwing caution to the winds, Spike pulled her up against him so that their torsos were touching all along their fronts. Buffy still let him, surprised at the power his kiss had over her.

Pushing his tongue not harshly but not entirely gently against her lips, Spike gained entrance by Buffy's mild shock. Her lips parted gently, and he slipped his tongue through, without bothering to ask her tacit permission, as Angel had. Caressing her mouth and nipping her bottom lip with dull human teeth, he put all of his feelings into the kiss, letting everything escape for one ten-second lapse in control.

When Buffy pulled away from him, her face was flushed and her body felt on fire. She'd always known that the vampire was passionate about everything he did, but she'd never seen it in such a clear display until that moment. When Spike wanted something, he went for it with a fire that was unsurpassed by nature, and Buffy had just seen that directed at her. Wordlessly, she went back to her chair looking as though in some kind of daze. Dawn cheered inwardly.

"So, pet?" Spike asked, his eyes twinkling with what he'd managed to achieve. "Gonna tell us which vampire rates higher on the Slayer-o-graph?"

Buffy woke up at that, and looked over at him. "What? No!"

Spike just smirked. "Pet, you promised."

Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I'm not going to."

"It's really that hard to decide which one of us is a better kisser?"

"No!"

"Then why don't you just enlighten us?"

"Because... because I don't want to."

"Love your reasoning, pet."

Buffy's tone grew warning. She really didn't want to try and talk about this right now, her own emotions were enough to deal with. "Spike..."

"Slayer-"

Angel cut him off, looking something between jealously pissed and sad and confused. "That's enough, Spike."

"Who said you got to decide, Peaches? It was her dare, this was part of it!"

"I get to decide because you're being an insensitive ass!" Angel exploded, his jealousy and anger at his grand-childe winning out over his desire to be supportive of whatever Buffy decided to do with her life. She could date Parker, Riley, as many human boys as she wanted, but when it came to his grand-childe, Angel wasn't going to let her make that decision on her own. He'd left her so she could have a normal life, and Spike wasn't it.

Spike recoiled just a bit, though he didn't look hurt, just surprised. "Well, well. Think somebody's a bit jealous?" He asked the room. Nobody answered him.

Buffy didn't look at Spike, but she addressed the room as a whole. "That was kind of insensitive, Spike." Her voice was quiet, eerily calm for her.

Immediately, Spike's supposedly non-existent conscience flared up. "Sorry, pet," He said, meaning it. "Sometimes I just get bloody caught up in... well, you know me and Peaches."

Buffy smiled a little, still looking dazed. "It's okay. I think I'm gonna go to bed now, though."

Rising, Spike made to follow her out of the room. She could stand and even walk now without the crutches or walker, but she tired very easily, and still had trouble dressing and undressing herself. She could do it, but she got so frustrated and it took so long that for the most part, she still had Spike helping her. It was kind of an unconscious agreement the crew had made. Dawn, because she didn't want Spike to see her naked and because he had no particular desire to see her 'in the buff' either, got helped by Cordelia. Buffy was Spike's charge.

Buffy shook her head. "I'm okay, Spike. I can do it myself tonight."

Picking up quickly on the tension between the two of them, he offered her an out. "You sure, pet? I'm sure the Seer'd help if you want..."

The Slayer shook her head again. "I'm really okay. But if you could help Dawn, Cordy... I think it's bedtime."

"Buffy!"

"Dawn," She answered in a warning tone.

Dawn slumped down in her seat. "You're no fun," She complained.

Buffy looked at her little sister. "Yeah. I didn't just let you stay up 'til three am playing truth or dare," she responded semi-sarcastically. "Bed. Now."

Dawn pouted, but didn't object when Cordelia rolled her off towards the Summers' sisters' room, Buffy trailing behind.

Spike followed the Slayer to the doorway, trying to get away from Angel before he spoke to her. "Pet?"

She turned. "Yeah?"

"Sure you don't want some help?"

Buffy smiled tiredly at him. "No. I'll be fine. I just... I just need to think, okay, Spike?"

He nodded mutely, surprise written on all of his features. He knew he'd made the Slayer feel something with their kiss, but apparently it had been more than he'd expected. "Sure."

"Good-night, Spike."

"'Night, Slayer."

* * *

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* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	11. Chapter Eleven

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

Nothing was said about it in the morning. Spike and Angel avoided each other even more studiously than usual, and shot glares across the breakfast table. Buffy tried to pretend nothing happened, and ended up forcefully cheerful. Dawn just sat back and watched the soap opera that was her family and friends, in a remarkably placate mood. 

Gunn drove Buffy and Dawn to the hospital later that day, Buffy for her physical therapy, Dawn for her checkup. The doctor had hinted that the brace on her arm might be able to come off soon, and she was excited and ready for that to happen. Plus, he'd said that it might be time to change casts on her leg, and Dawn always relished that. It meant a chance to expose her wrinkled skin to fresh air, and a chance to scratch all of those built-up itches.

Dawn did indeed get the brace off and her cast changed. Unfortunately, the new cast was just new, not really any different, and she was going to have to stay in the wheelchair for at least another few weeks. Pouting, sulking, and just generally in a bad mood, she allowed an orderly to push her up to the waiting room for her sister's physical therapy, where she sat in silence until Angel arrived.

When Buffy came out, looking tired and frustrated, the first thing Dawn felt was the tension in the air. It was so thick it could be cut with a fang, and Dawn didn't doubt that they were both sensing it, too. They were just still attempting to ignore it, while Dawn knew that was a futile gesture, and was just trying to be patient until they saw that, too.

Moving slowly, Angel pushed Dawn towards the elevators and waited for Buffy to come with them. The Slayer moved slowly, tiredly, and Angel wore his usual brow-twisting expression of concern as he witnessed this. "Are you okay, Buffy?" He asked.

She shook her head absently. "What? Oh, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

The walk to the car was quiet.

When they returned to the hotel, Spike was nowhere to be found. Angel didn't say anything, but Dawn could feel it in the air, she doubted that Spike had been back since just before sunrise when he'd left in the morning. Most vampires would leave their dwellings at _sunset_, she knew, but Spike was an unusual vampire. She wasn't worried yet, just wondering where he was. And what the heck a flammable creature did during the daylight hours.

Buffy decided to take a nap when they returned to the hotel, and somehow got an idea in her head about how her sister must need one, too. But, as tired as she was, Dawn was having none of it. "I'll just play video games," She told Buffy.

"Dawnie, you were up late last night, you need some sleep."

"_Buffy_, I'm not going to take a nap. I'll go to bed early, if I must."

"Alright. But you must."

"Must what?"

"Go to bed early!"

Dawn waved her sister off without looking at her. "Fine. Now go, you'll be less grouchy when the sun's down." She could feel her sister's gaze pounding into her back after she said that last bit, but she was neither afraid nor guilty for having done so, so she just ignored it. Buffy didn't like to be reminded of how like the vampires she was. But Dawn knew that the Slayer was more similar than she liked to admit.

Vampires liked violence, right? So did Buffy, she just fought on the other side of things. Vampires lived at night. Buffy was at best grouchy during the day, and sometimes downright bitchy. She slept more easily with the sun up, and she was distracted easily when there was light about. At night, she was razor-sharp. Dawn had seen her sister in various modes throughout her life as a Slayer, and she'd noticed the things that Buffy hadn't wanted to.

The younger Summers' wasn't quite sure why her sister insisted on denying so much to herself. Obviously, she didn't want to think she was anything like a vampire, but as current company evidenced, Dawn thought, not all vampires were bad. And when they weren't killing people or trying to suck the world into hell, Spike and Angel were pretty cool. They both had super-strength, and good fashion sense. They got to live at night, which pretty much put them right into the middle of the whole party scene. They fought for good, but they got to have their cool growly-faces. All in all, she thought they had it pretty good.

Of course, Angel was tortured by his soul, and Spike was simply reigned in by a computer chip, but besides that...

Dawn had thought a lot about Spike and the chip. Since Joyce had died, Buffy had become more and more distant, and with the Glory threat around, she had placed more and more of Dawn's well-being in the vampire's hands. For a while now, he'd had the power to do with her what he wanted. Even if he couldn't physically hurt her, Dawn knew there were other things he could have done. Obviously, Spike hadn't wanted her hurt, since she wasn't.

Buffy insisted that if and when the chip stopped functioning, Spike would return to his ways, become the same heartless killer that he used to be. But Dawn had never seen that side of the vampire, and though she believed it had existed, she was also firm in her belief that it was gone now. Besides, it wasn't like he'd ever hurt Dawn. From the moment she'd met him, in the Summers' living room three years ago, while he and Buffy were working side by side for the first time, against Angelus, he'd felt protective of her, and she'd known it.

Dawn didn't know it, but Spike had never been much for hurting kids. When hunting, he'd eat whatever he could find, and sometimes used children for playing with because it delighted Drusilla, but for the most part, kids were safe from William the Bloody. For some reason, even after his transformation, they'd still held a special place in his heart. If he'd thought about it, he probably would have realized it stemmed from his little sister Elizabeth, the only person in the world who had accepted him when he was human, but he didn't think about it. 

He'd tried to keep it a secret from Angelus and Darla, and Drusilla while they were still living with the former two, but of course they had found out. Several times Angelus had made him feast from local schools or daycare centers, because he would not allow any blood of his to act in such a way "unbefitting a vampire!" but it only made Spike's resistance towards the idea stronger, and when Angelus and Darla left him and Dru, one right after the other, he no longer needed to fight with anyone. Dru certainly didn't care, as long as he didn't interfere with her choices for meals. And even if he did, she would cry and put up a fuss, but Spike had quickly become adept at calming her.

Dawn didn't know any of this. She just knew that from the moment she'd laid eyes on the fearsome vampire, something had told her that she was safe in his presence. She wasn't deluded, even as an eleven-year-old she'd felt his power, understood his capacity to hurt and maim. But she'd just as clearly felt his instincts to protect a child, and because Dawn looked a little like the long-dead Elizabeth, he felt it all the more clearly. She was sure that she would never have to fear for her safety as long as Spike was around.

But whether he'd stay around very long with Buffy treating him the way she was, that was the question. Because as much as her sister loved to deny it, Dawn knew that Spike's feelings for the Slayer were real. She didn't know how exactly her sister felt about the vampire, but she did know that Buffy constantly treated Spike as though he were beneath her. The vampire was persistent, but Dawn knew that eventually he'd give up and move on to something easier if Buffy didn't show signs of bending, even in the slightest way.

Well, she decided, she'd just have to do something about that. Because whether Buffy wanted Spike around or not, Dawn did. Partially for the vampire, because she knew he was an outcast in the demon world and would be forced to live a lonely, solitary life, but more for herself. Dawn didn't have many friends, but she felt like Spike was one of the true ones, and she wanted to keep him. As selfish as her reasons might be, she was _going_ to get her sister to stop treating the vampire like dirt.

It might take all summer, but Dawn Summers' name was summer. It was her lucky season. And her mother had always told her that her middle name was stubborn, hadn't she? Well, it was time to live up to that reputation.

Days passed, and Dawn was starting to get more worried. Not worried that Spike was hurt, she was sure that the vampire could take care of himself, but worried that he'd abandoned them. Worried that she'd lost her only friend left in the world besides Buffy. And as much as she loved her sister, it wasn't the same as real friends who didn't have to be her parent, too. 

Despite the fact that Spike was equally as protective of her as Buffy was now, and her mom had been before she died, Dawn felt that the relationship she had with the chipped vampire was completely different. Mostly, she thought, because Spike listened to her. When he wanted to do something together, he asked her opinion. He didn't treat her as if she were five, or made of glass that would shatter at the slightest touch. In short, he treated her like a friend, even though he had the protective instincts of an older sibling or a parent.

Dawn told herself that Spike wouldn't leave her without saying good-bye, but as the days went by, she started to lose that belief. Still, hope told her that Spike could come back at any time, and she slept lightly during the night, each time hoping that this would be the night he'd return. Just stomp in the door like nothing happened, throw his coat over the back of the couch, and smirk at her. And then he'd call her his 'Little Bit', or 'Platelet', or another one of his silly little nicknames, and all would be forgiven and forgotten.

Meanwhile, Buffy was wrestling with similar emotions, though her reasons for having them weren't nearly as clear as her little sister's. She wanted Spike to return for Dawn, but as the days wore on, she slowly considered the fact that maybe she wanted Spike to return for her, too. She didn't love him, she never could, she told herself, but she enjoyed his company. Missed the challenge of verbally sparring with him until they both realized the insanity of their fight and broke out into fits of laughter. Missed, surprisingly enough, his constant baiting of his grand-sire, which was always remarkably effective due to the knowledge of each and every one of Angel's weak points. And, she slowly concluded, she just missed his presence in her life.

She was confused, too. Neither sister was entirely sure why Spike was gone. The time in question had just been a truth or dare game. Nothing particularly deep about it. But maybe it had just been the spark that started the fire, and the game had simply caused Spike to realize something he'd been denying or hadn't understood before. Buffy had had plenty of times where that happened to her at the most inane moments; she understood the sensation.

But when day three passed with no sign of the vampire, she didn't care anymore why Spike was gone, she just wanted him back. Her mobility was much better and she no longer required help to take a shower or dress, which she was immensely grateful for, but she still needed assistance getting around, and being that close to Angel more often than either of them had anticipated, was slowly frying the nerves in both of their bodies.

As Dawn put it, the 'thing' she had with Angel was... _complicated_ lately. The sparks still flew insanely hotly, but neither of them felt the burn as much. Having resigned themselves to this life, they simply did their best to quietly ignore them and get on with their lives.

_A life never together, yet never quite apart_, Buffy thought wryly. It was poetic and romantic and beautiful... and why didn't they tell you at the end of those incredibly sad poems that they read in ninth grade, how painful it really was? How the hurt never really went away, and that once you were tied to someone that deeply, bound by your soul, that you could never really leave them behind? And how it wasn't romantic, it was terrible and cruel and the worst kind of torture the world had ever invented?

Silent tears streamed down her face, and she absently wondered how she'd gotten from thinking about Spike to thinking about her former relationship with Angel, and high school poetry. And then she realized, that Spike and Angel were, in her mind, forever and unquestionably linked. That she never looked at Spike without seeing a little of her former lover in him, and how she never laid eyes on Angel without thinking about Spike, whatever reaction that might evoke at the moment.

The Slayer reached up and wiped the tears away, her body still as she lay in bed, in the dark. Dawn was snoring softly on the bed across the room, but Buffy knew that a single move would wake her. Her sister hadn't been sleeping well since Spike left, and probably wouldn't again until he was back.

_If he came back_, she corrected herself.

No. He had to come back. Not for her, as much as she wanted to spend more time around him and try to resolve these conflicting feelings she had for him, but for Dawn. Because her sister had lost enough people that she loved in her life, and this year had been the worst of it. And she didn't care if it damned her soul forever, trying to get a vampire back to be best friends with her sister, she was _going_ to hunt Spike down and return him to Dawn if he didn't come back on his own.

The only question was, how long should she wait for him?

* * *

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	12. Chapter Twelve

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG, so far.

* * *

Spike was living out of an abandoned building only blocks from Angel's hotel, trying to figure out his own head at the same time that the Summers' sisters were pondering it. Only for him, it was a lot more difficult to deal with all the feelings than it was for Buffy or Dawn. They wanted him back. It was that clear. But Spike wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

He had more than a few good reasons. Dawn was getting attached to him, something no one should do to a vampire. She was also relatively isolated from her own peers by her physical inabilities at the moment, and seemed to want to spend more and more time with him. Spike loved it, but it wasn't good for her. And if he went back, he wasn't sure he'd be able to stay away from her enough for her to form healthy attachments. 

Buffy was another reason, though by different causes. Spike really hadn't a clue what to do with the section of his head labeled 'Feelings for the Slayer' because right now they were such a jumble he thought if he tried to pull one out to look at it, he'd get them all. So he locked them in the back of his head, trying to focus on the facts. Fact one: the Slayer would never allow herself to be with him, no matter what she felt. He was soulless, and a vampire, the very thing she'd devoted her life to wiping off the face of the earth. Fact two: there was undeniably something between them. Chemistry, love, whatever you wanted to call it, the air sparkled when they were together. Fact three: this was all moot if Buffy didn't see it, and/or didn't care.

And that was why Spike was sitting on the floor in a barren room, wiping the cobwebs from his face every time they got too annoying, when he could be watching cable television from his grand-sire's poofy couch.

That night, the way that Buffy didn't look upset, or sad, or even really very confused when she left for her room, that was what had finally set off the bells in Spike's head. Buffy hadn't looked any of those things because she wasn't surprised by his behavior. And that realization had dug deeply into the vampire. She wasn't supposed to be used to his asinine behavior, he was supposed to curb it because he loved her!

So, when everyone had gone to bed two days before, which had taken until five-freakin'-am, Spike had left the hotel without notice, without thought, and without any plan. He just knew he needed to sort out his head, figure out what made him behave in such a manner around the Slayer.

And this was where that bright supposition had gotten him.

When Buffy and Angel showed up the next night, Spike was both incredibly relieved and very disturbed. Relieved because it meant they cared enough to go out and look for him, but distraught because he wasn't sure he'd wanted to be found yet. And of course, he wasn't as relieved as he could have been, because Dawn could have easily whined long enough that the Slayer and his grand-sire were forced to look for him. They weren't necessarily here because they wanted to be.

Buffy had entered the room in a very theatrical way, the same way she'd always treated life. Spike had been upset over the loss of that sparkle and good humor when she'd lost her friends, but it seemed to be coming back. She would always mourn for her friends and co-workers-of-a-sort, but life went on. Buffy's, Dawn's, Xander's, and Anya's, at least. 

"Where are you, Spike?" She'd called into the building, wrinkling her nose and pushing aside a cobweb. "I really don't want to come in there after you!"

At least she hadn't sounded mad, the younger vampire remembered. Rising slowly, he'd dusted off his pants, twined around the worst of the spiderwebs, and headed for the door, stopping about ten feet short of his search party. "'Ello, Slayer."

Buffy had cocked her head in that cute way she did, leaning on the walker and still managing to look confident. "You look like hell."

He'd smirked. "Nice to see you, too."

"You were the one that ran." Buffy's voice had been flat, with absolutely not emotion. Listening to it had given the vampire both hope and pain, because he had not a clue what she was thinking.

He'd shrugged. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Why'd you do it?"

He'd shrugged again. "Needed to clear my head out, and all that crap. Din'na think you'd find me so fast."

Angel, who had been both silent and still as a status up till that point, Spike remembered, tapped his nose. Spike had nodding, understanding. "Ah. The old, 'Use my grand-sire like a bloodhound' technique. See it took you a couple 'o days. Would'a been faster if you couldn't gotten Dru here, you know." He'd said all of this with an air of just stating facts.

Buffy had replied to him in exactly the same tone. "Probably. But nobody knows where she is, and she's kind of insane, so it complicates matters a bit."

Spike had shrugged, dragged a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, blowing smoke towards the open door. "Guess so."

The building had fallen silent after that. Three blank expressions had canvassed their faces, Spike knew. They had lived so long, he and Angel, and they had all seen so much, that they'd had to learn to be masters of their emotions. If not inwardly, then at least, the ones they were displaying. That particular show of nothing had not been hard for any of them to pull off. Sadly, they were all too used to it.

Buffy had shrugged then, throwing out her arms in questioning. "So, are you coming back, then?"

"Maybe."

"Can I take a phone number and get back to you? I really don't have time to play this game all night, Spike." There had been more than a sarcastic undertone in her voice, and Spike had known he and the Slayer were back several squares. He'd steeled himself. Well, running off might not have been the best thing to do for him and Buffy's relationship, whatever the hell it consisted of, but it was good for the Little Bit. He had to remember that.

Now, a day after that conversation, Spike wasn't so sure he was doing the right thing anymore. He missed Dawn. He missed Angel's cable TV, and the cheerleader's ability to exchange quips with him at a rate nobody else had ever mastered. He missed Buffy's requesting his help instead of his grand-sire's, and the rush of warmth that went over him when she did that. He missed sleeping in a bed, and he missed waking up and not having to knock the world's biggest spiders off of his lap. Spike wasn't afraid of the spiders he shared his abandoned building with, but they were a little creepy. And they tickled.

So he went back to the hotel.

The first thing that Spike saw when he entered the lobby silently and looked around, was a shrieking Dawn, propelling herself towards him as fast as she could in the wheelchair. Spike met her halfway, holding his hands up in a universal gesture of caution. "Hey, bit, slow down! Don't wanna crash the chair, now do you?"

Dawn paid no heed, as he'd known she wouldn't, and didn't stop until she was directly in front of him. Bending down, he let her throw her arms around his neck and pull him into her embrace, realizing how much he'd really missed her.

When she let go, though, the hurt look in her eyes nearly broke his heart. "Why did you leave, Spike?" She asked. "I'm sorry about the truth or dare game, I really am! I didn't mean to make you upset, I just wanted you and Buffy to start talking!"

Spike shook his head. "Oh, platelet, I didn't leave 'cause of that game." He reached down and hugged her again, quickly. "I din'na mean for you t' think that." He looked guiltily down at his feet.

"Well, why did you leave, then?"

He shook his head again, still looking at the ground. "Not really sure how to explain, pet."  
"Was it something else we did? 'Cause I know Buffy really missed you! And I missed you!" Pause. "And don't ever do that again!"

Spike smiled and caught her eye reluctantly this time. "Got a bit of that slayer attitude in you, I see. Then again, I always knew that." He grinned as Dawn put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Kinda hard to miss. You both have this incredible tendency to try and tell me what to do."

Dawn's glare faltered, and she looked childlike again in an instant. "Was that... why you left?"  
Spike's face went serious instantly. "No! Bloody hell, bit, it wasn't anything you did! I love you. You didn't do anything wrong." He stared at her, trying to will his feelings into the teenager's brain. God, this made him feel guilty. He hadn't realized that, by leaving, he was letting Dawn blame herself for it. He hadn't meant to hurt her. He'd been trying to protect her from him. But how to explain that to an injured, emotionally fragile fourteen-year-old that had just lost her mother and several close friends?

He knelt down, so that he was fairly level with Dawn in the wheelchair. "Pet... I'm a vampire. And vampires... we aren't supposed to care about people. Aren't supposed t' think about you as anything but food." He looked away from her intense gaze, hanging onto his every word. "But then, I've always been a bit of a defective bloodsucker."

Dawn didn't say anything, seeming to understand his need to get this out. Spike continued. "That's not the point, though. I love you, and I'll never hurt you, but I'm just not good for you! You're fourteen, you shouldn't have to think about things like vampires and demons! You should be chatting with some mates, in the sun, gossipin' about whatever it is you gossip about."

Dawn's expression didn't reflect anything as she spoke. "Spike, how many times have you saved my life?"

"That ain't the point, bit-"

"Just answer the question."

He shrugged. "Dunno. Five or six."

"And Buffy's?"

"A bunch."

"And how many times did you try to kill Buffy?"

He looked away at that. "Three times."

"And me?"

"Never."

Dawn forced him to look at her. "Then I'd say, you're pretty good for us, aren't you? Buffy might disagree about the overall effect on her safety, but I think you're good for me."

"Pet, it's not about whether you're _safe_ with me or not. You've always been safe with me. It's about what you should and shouldn't have to deal with."

"So, if you leave, I'm just going to be normal again? I won't have grown up on a hellmouth, and Willow and Tara and Giles and Mom will all be alive again and Buffy won't be the Slayer, all if you leave me?" Dawn's tone was clearly confrontational, trying to get him to slip up and say something that she could pounce on.

Spike didn't answer. It wasn't because he didn't want to. It was because he couldn't, for the life of him, think of a way to argue with that.

The platinum-blond vampire was still marveling at his own stupidity, looking down at the Slayer's little sister and shaking his head, when the aforementioned Slayer appeared in the doorway to hers and her sister's room. She stood on her own now, hand braced against the doorframe, but looking pretty steady. Wordlessly, she opened her arms, and Spike went towards her, grabbing her in a hug, that, though short-lived, held the kind of comfort the vampire had been aching to receive from her for the past year.

He savored it more because he knew that the Slayer was allowing this little weakness only out of the pain of the days he'd been missing, and would soon clam up. But it only made it a little more special to him, knowing that these pent-up feelings did indeed exist, and he smiled into the empty room over her shoulder.

When he pulled away, he looked her from top to bottom, and let a small smile creep over his face. "On your feet again, huh? Looks good on you." Buffy smiled slightly, and nodded. 

"Yeah. Feels good, too." Her voice was uncharacteristically soft.

There they stood, Slayer and vampire, just staring at each other for a few long moments. Then Dawn broke in.

"So, are you back to stay?"

Turning slowly, Spike offered Buffy his arm. She took it gratefully, and came to stand next to him, leaning on his small but lithe body for support. "I don't know, pet. I still don't think that it's healthy for you to grow up with so many demons around."

Dawn's lower lip trembled a little, and Spike realized for the first time how much this was really upsetting her, the idea that he might not be back to stay. But she reined in her feelings and nodded sagely, even with tears glistening in her eyes, threatening to fall. "Okay."

Exchanging a glance with the Slayer, Spike left her side, confident that she was alright on her own. Crouching down by Dawn, he forced her to look him in the eye. "Oh, niblet, I din'na mean to upset you." He stroked her cheek in affection. "How 'bout this. I'll stay- on a few conditions."

Hope shining in her eyes, Dawn looked up. "What conditions?" She asked tentatively.

"When you can get around again, you have to start taking some classes. Be around some people your own age."

Dawn nodded without hesitation. "Okay."

Spike raised his eyebrows, questioning her again. "Okay?"

"Okay." She smiled. "Then you'll stay?"

"Then I'll stay." He smiled back at her.

* * *

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* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	13. Chapter Thirteen

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: RATING CHANGE: PG-13

* * *

Things went back to 'normal' pretty quickly. Spike and Dawn mended their fences in a few days and some heart-felt talks, but Buffy was still a little standoffish. Spike supposed he didn't have a right to expect anything else from her, though. Not after the stunt he'd pulled, leaving and all.

Still, he missed being around her. She didn't need as much help anymore, and he felt a little useless sometimes. Her therapy was switched to earlier in the day, and Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia started taking turns picking her up and dropping her off, because the sun was still out at that hour.

Dawn got the cast taken off and replaced with a walking brace two weeks after Spike returned. He immediately took her to the local community center and watched her pick out classes to take, part of the agreement they'd made about him staying at the Hyperion, and in her life. She decided on a drawing class for the moment, and when Spike pressured her to pick up at least one more class, she told him that she planned to take tae kwon do as soon as her leg was healed. He begrudgingly agreed, and they left the center.

"You like to draw, Niblet?"

"Yeah. I'm not very good, but I like it."

Spike shook his head. "Peaches is a bloody-good artist. Could ask him for pointers, if you're interested."

Dawn shook her head. "I don't think so. I don't have the best memories of Angel and drawings together."

Spike let out a burst of slightly bitter laughter. "Guess you wouldn't, pet."

Hopping into the car as agilely as possible while sporting a toe to knee brace, Dawn changed the subject smoothly. "What do you like to do, Spike?"  
He shrugged. "When I was human, I used to write."

"What?"  
"Poems. Terrible stuff, really. You know how I got the name 'William the Bloody'?"  
Dawn wrinkled her nose. "Do I want to hear this?" She asked.

Spike smiled, but sobered quickly. "I was a 'bloody awful poet', according to several people I knew at the time."

Dawn guffawed and bent over, unable to stay straight in the midst of her laughter. Her body shook and sound exploded from her throat, throwing her slight form around with the force of it. Spike waited patiently.

Eventually, when she could look at him without bursting into fits of hysterics again, she wiped her eyes and pursed her lips, trying to stay calm. "Sorry, Spike."

He shrugged. "Most people found it funny back then, too."

Sobering instantly, Dawn realized she'd hit on a raw nerve without meaning to. "I didn't mean to make fun of your poetry, Spike, really. I just always thought that you did something terrible and evil and deadly to get your name, not write prose!"

Spike smiled a little. "S'okay, Bit. Guess it is kind of funny, now that I think about it." He smirked a little.

"Do you write anymore?" Dawn asked suddenly, out of the blue.

Spike glanced over at her, his hands going tight on the wheel. "Why?"

"'Cause I'd like to read some of it."  
Spike looked straight out the front window again for a long moment, thinking it over. He'd never let anyone read his poetry again after that day with Cecily, but he'd continued to write well into his vampire years. Cooped up in Sunnydale, harnessed by the chip, he'd started again in the past couple of years.

No one that was still alive, or undead, had read his work as far as he knew, with the exception of Drusilla. For all of the emotional torture Angelus had visited on the young Spike, he'd steered clear of the poems. For what reason, Spike didn't know, but he'd been grateful at the time, and still was, a little, under the seething hatred he felt for his grand-sire's alter ego.

Darla however, had been a different story.

Sick of Dru whining at her and Angelus while they had been trying to get something done, her suggestion that the insane vampiress turn a childe had been off-hand, something she'd never expected would actually happen. And when Dru had turned William, she'd still shrugged her shoulders and assumed that a few years with only Drusilla as a master would have him dust in no time.

But it turned out, William had had a bit more spunk than Darla had assumed, and survived the required four years to exit fledgling-hood. Bitter and angry with him for causing trouble, taking Angelus' attention, and just plain existing, she'd taunted him with everything she could think of, including his poetry. Will had stopped writing in a hurry, and burned all of his previous works.

And to this day, something inside him screamed at the idea of sharing his work. All people had ever done was laugh at him when he read his precisely proper, sometimes overly British poetry to them in a heart-felt tone with the weight of his strongest emotions behind it. But this was Dawn. She wouldn't laugh at him, would she?

He glanced at her, saw her waiting patiently for an answer. She met his eyes with her dark, deep chocolate ones, and he didn't see any humor in them, not any indication that she might never let him live it down if he read his work to her, like the others wouldn't, he was sure. "Maybe."

Seemingly satisfied with his answer, Dawn nodded.

The rest of the ride back was quiet. When they got there, Buffy was at therapy, and Gunn had gone to pick her up. Angel was out, hunting as usual, though because of the time of day, it was in the sewers. 

Spike had driven Dawn to the community center in an old, beat up car he'd purchased for almost nothing from a local used car dealer. A hundred and twenty years and a curiosity the likes of Spike's, he'd learned a little something about car mechanisms. After fixing it up, he'd painted all the windows black and scrubbed out holes just small enough that he could see through them, but they didn't burn him horribly. 

He'd hidden the car several blocks from Angel Investigations, knowing that Buffy would never let her sister go out in the likes of it. But he wanted to be around Dawn, and he needed a little independence at times, too. Besides, he was good driver, and practiced at driving with blind spots. Lots of them. There really was no other way for a vampire to get around during the day.

Plopping himself down on the couch, Spike sighed in boredom. Dawn flung herself in a chair across from him, and heaved an echoing sigh. 

"What'd you wanna do, pet?"

"Don' know."  
"Monopoly?"

"No."

"Cards?"

"Scrabble?"  
"Sure."

Dawn threw herself from the chair into a standing position and Spike chuckled at her dramatism. Then he followed her into the kitchen, where every imaginable board game was stacked on the chair at the end of the table, and helped her pick Scrabble from the bunch, without knocking the rest over.

The first thing Buffy heard when she came into the hotel was her sister's piercing whine. "Spiiiiikeeee!"

The vampire clapped his hands over his ears dramatically. "Ouch! Watch it, Niblet. I've got better hearing than you do, you know." He smiled at her to soften the reprimand.

She didn't look at all sorry, anyway. Pouting, she slumped in her chair equally dramatically. "No fair."

Spike pretended to look over the game, checking to make sure what he'd done was legal. "Looks fair to me."

"That's not what I meant!"

The vampire grinned. "What did you mean, then? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that's what fair means."

Dawn threw her hands into the air and growled softly, managing it remarkably well considering she didn't have the vampire vocal cords that Spike did. "Spike!"

Buffy smiled softly as she watched this exchange. Coughing lightly to announce her presence, she walked slowly over towards where the board game was set out. "Hey, guys."

"Hey, Buffy!" Dawn greeted her cheerily. "Spike signed me up for drawing classes!"

"That's great."

Leaning over a little, Buffy raised her eyebrows when she saw the Scrabble board. Dawn blushed a little, but Spike just smirked. Looking from one to the other, she lifted an eyebrow and pointed at a particular word. "And just who came up with that?" She asked.

Dawn blushed a little harder and sunk into her chair, hoping to become invisible. Dashing that hope as quickly as it had arisen, Spike grinned and gestured towards her. "The Niblet did, love."

Buffy's gaze transferred to her sister. "And where did you learn a word like that, Missy?" Her tone wasn't angry, in fact it was more towards teasing, but her eyes said she wanted an answer.  
Dawn couldn't blush any harder, so she just sunk farther under the table. "I just knew it."

"You 'just knew it'?" The eyebrows went up again.

Pulling herself up, Dawn got a little indignant. "What? It's not like I'm a little child, anymore Buffy! The word isn't exactly out of circulation, you know!"

Buffy just shrugged and nodded indifferently. "Guess not." And with that, she headed off into the kitchen, determined to find something to eat that wasn't of the liquid, red, viscous nature.

Dawn looked at Spike, and when the older vampire smirked a little embarrassingly at the fourteen-year-old, she looked back at the Scrabble board. Then, sighing, she picked up the scorecard and stared forlornly at it. The only good score she'd gotten the whole game was with 'blowjob'. 

Dawn's first drawing class was a complete disaster, at least according to the teen. "I can't draw!" She moaned. "I don't know why I signed up for it. I've never drawn anything in my life that isn't a stick figure or a diagram."

Spike smirked indulgently and took the paper from her. True, it could use some work, but anyone with eyes could tell what it was supposed to be. "Your teacher had you drawing a bloody tennis ball?" He asked, amused.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "He said we had to start somewhere. I said, couldn't it be somewhere with a little more substance, but he said tennis balls were 'perfect'."

"Well, he probably does had more experience teaching people to draw than you do, Niblet."

Dawn rolled her eyes again and reclaimed her drawing, but didn't speak until they were safely inside the car.

Driving unusually carefully down the side-street they were on, Spike kept throwing glances at the teen, unsure of how to bring up what he was hoping to talk about. As it turned out, he needn't have worried.

Dawn looked over at him on the third glance, rolled her eyes, slumped her shoulders and sighed. "Alright, what is it?"

Spike played dumb for a moment. "What's what?"  
Dawn's gaze grew sharper. "Whatever it is you want to talk to me about. I'm not stupid, you know."

Spike smirked and shook his head. "Nope, you definitely aren't," he conceded. Then, getting slightly more serious, he turned his attention back to the road. "School starts in three weeks."

Dawn nodded, and sighed. "Please don't remind me."

Spike looked over at her, a little surprised, and sure that it was evident on his face. "Last time we talked, you were adamant about not going."

Dawn looked down at her lap. "That was before you threatened to leave if I didn't," she mumbled.

The vampire started a little. "I didn't say that!"

Dawn looked up and met his eyes. "You implied it," She answered.

"I did not-" Spike took a moment, and looked back through his conversation with Dawn. "I guess I could see where I might have implied it," He conceded grudgingly.

The teenager looked confused. "Then you didn't mean it?" She asked.

Spike shook his head. "I want you to go out and be with people your own age," He explained. "But I know that school might be right bloody hard for you right now, so I didn't mean to tell you you had to do that."

Still confused, Dawn pursued the issue. "Then why did you mention it?"

"What, right now?" 

Dawn nodded.

Looking away from her earnest gaze and back at the road, Spike answered a little more slowly than normal. "I was hoping you would consider it."

"But I don't have to go."

"Not unless your sister says you do."

Dawn shook her head. "She said she's going to be... home enough that she can homeschool me without any trouble." Spike heard the catch in the teenager's sentence at the word 'home', and his heart ached for her. She shouldn't have had to go through so much at such a young age.

"Okay, Niblet."

Dawn looked over at him, and her gaze seemed to compel him to catch her eye for the brief moment he could while driving. "Do you want me to?"

Spike nodded. "I know you want to be part of the gang, but I think that it would be good for you to have a life outside of demons and slaying," He said. "Your sis used to have that with the Whelp... and Red." They both paused for a moment, then the vampire forged ahead. "You should have some friends your own age, too."

Dawn seemed to consider it for a long moment. Then, sighing as though the weight of the world were on her shoulders, something that Spike painfully recalled, had been true not too long ago, she nodded.

"Yes?" Spike asked.

She nodded again.

"Yes to what? Yes, you'll go to school?"

She nodded a third time, still silent.

Spike dipped his chin, and smiled briefly at her. "Alrighty then, we'll register you in the morning."

* * *

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Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	14. Chapter Fourteen

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!

Author's Note 2: I know, I know! It takes me forever to finish chapters of this. Unfortunately, real life intrudes. However, this is much quicker than last time, right? 

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG-13

* * *

Spike quickly found out that getting Buffy to accompany him and Dawn to the school office wasn't at all hard. Ecstatic that her sister was going to go back to school, she didn't even complain about having to go to a meeting at eight am, though Spike swore he could she her grow a couple of inches after her morning coffee. 

It hadn't taken Los Angeles social services very long to latch onto the fact that Dawn was without a parent, now. The first thing they'd done was scour the globe for Dawn's father, something that had had Buffy on edge for weeks, but luckily, they hadn't found him. Or so they said. Buffy had a suspicion they had, and he didn't want anything to do with Dawn. Since they were forced to relay their findings in the room with Dawn there, perhaps they had lied to spare her feelings.

Granting Buffy guardianship had been the natural order of things, and though they weren't thrilled that they lived in a hotel with four bachelors and Cordelia, they couldn't find anything really wrong with it. Then, when Buffy had declared her intention to homeschool Dawn, she'd seen the frowns get a little bit deeper, but since homeschooling was legal in California, they'd only basically warned her not to mess up.

Now, though, putting Dawn back in school would make things easier on all of them, except perhaps Dawn. Buffy wasn't really sure what she would do with her time since Dawn wouldn't be around to talk to and work with, but she was sure she'd find something. As soon as she was a little stronger, she was eyeing a martial arts studio down the street from Angel's as part of her recovery. Angel pointed out that he, Spike and Gunn could all spar her and probably improve on her technique ten times better than school, but it was the social aspect of the studio that drew her. Though she doubted that she would find anyone to physically challenge her, as Angel had pointed out, she had that at the hotel. At the studio, though, maybe she'd find someone to talk to. Maybe she could finally have someone other than Cordelia to talk to about girl things, and though the thought that it was replacing Willow had crossed her mind several times, every time that happened, she forced it out. She knew it wasn't true, it was just hard to convince her heart of the same fact.

So, other than the irrelevance of Buffy's mental rant, this was how they'd ended up in the Los Angeles school-district registration office, in early August, talking to the registration counselor while Dawn fidgeted in her seat, obviously nervous about the prospect of going back to school.

"Well, it looks like all the forms are in order," the counselor told them as she looked over the immunization records, Sunnydale junior-high transcripts, and general information papers.

"So, Dawn, you completed 9th grade, right?"

Dawn nodded.

"But it was at a junior high?"

She nodded again.

The counselor frowned a little. "Well, Los Angeles is on a different system. 9th grade is high school, here. But it looks like you have the background, the right classes that is, to go into 10th grade anyway.

"I'm sure she doesn't want to repeat a grade," she explained to Buffy, who nodded in agreement.

Reaching into a drawer and pulling out a piece of paper with a carbon copy, she checked several boxes, signed it, and handed it to Buffy. "This is her certificate of eligibility," the counselor explained. "You need to take that to the school, and register her for classes, now."

Buffy nodded. "Can you tell us which high school is closest to our address?" She asked. "We haven't lived here very long, and I'm afraid I don't know where it is."

The counselor nodded. "Certainly. LA is a big place, we have several high schools." She typed something into her computer, and scrolled down the list for a moment, then looked up, and spoke as she grabbed a piece of paper from a scratch pile. "It's Duveneck. This is the address." She scrolled something on the paper, and handed it to Buffy. "Good luck!"

Buffy nodded, smiled, and thanked the counselor. Then she, Spike and Dawn departed the building, heading back to the Hyperion. The high school wouldn't be staffed until the following week, so they'd have to wait until then to register Dawn.

In the meantime, they had something else to plan for.

Dawn's fifteenth birthday wasn't a big bash, since she really didn't have any friends in the area yet, but Xander and Anya showed up, and everyone brought her presents. Angel, Gunn and Wesley, clearly having no idea what to get her, had given her a gift certificate for the store where they'd seen her and Cordy shopping earlier in the summer, something that she squealed over and jumped up to hug them for.

Xander and Anya handed her a big box, and she had pulled it open immediately. Inside was a beautiful leather jacket, something Dawn was sure was expensive, but that she also desperately wanted and wasn't about to complain about. "Oh my god!" She cried. "This is so great!" Xander grinned, and Anya explained the reasons behind the gift, going into much more detail than necessary, as usual.

"Leather makes very strong clothing," She informed them, matter-of-factly. "When faced with things with claws and sharp teeth, it is the optimal thing to be wearing." She frowned a little. "Well, besides chain mail. But you can't really move very well in that, and besides, I don't think anyone makes it anymore."

Dawn grinned at her, and nodded. "Yeah. And besides, leather, like totally in style, too!"

Anya looked a little surprised. "I guess you do see a lot of people wearing it for social acceptability," she conceded upon having thought it over for a moment. "Though I suspect you will find it more useful for demon-fighting."

Buffy frowned at this, not at all thrilled at the idea of her sister joining the Summers' family tradition. But Dawn looked happy with the present, and the day, altogether, and Anya wasn't doing it to be purposely annoying, so she did her best to let it slide, and motioned Dawn on to the next present.

Spike had bought her a new CD she'd desperately wanted, and Buffy got her two presents. When she opened the first, which was a college planning guide, she'd been sure her sister was determined to get her nothing fun at all for this birthday, but then the second gift had been a book on how to pick up guys, crumpled and obviously heavily used. "It was mine," Buffy explained unnecessarily. "I'm not sure how useful it was, but it's a fun book."

Dawn had jumped up to hug her, and they had held onto each other for long moments before the younger Summers' sister got back to her presents, of which there were only two left.

She tore quickly into the present from Cordy, anticipating something good, and she wasn't disappointed. Inside a clear box was an entire make-up kit with several different shades of everything. Very sincere thank-you's were given, and Dawn looked over at her last present, a large box.

Spike and Angel rose from their chairs, and went to get it. Clearly heavy, she could see their muscles working to drag it, though it didn't seem to prove any hardship for their vampire strength. Pushing it in front of her, they reclaimed their seats, and Dawns started to rip at the paper in earnest.

Uncovering metal bars, she frowned in bewilderment, but continued unwrapping. When it was half done, it became clear what it was, and she clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise and joy. "Is it... is it... Buffy?" She asked.

Buffy nodded, unhooking the door of the crate and pulling out three books from amongst a stack of other puppy-care items- one on how to pick your puppy, one on dog-training, and one on general dog care. "Pets don't make good gifts," she explained, "so there isn't an actual puppy waiting for you. But this is all you should need to care for it, at least right away, and this is also basically permission to pick one. From all of us."

Dawn shrieked in excitement, and jumped up from her seat. Running around the circle of chairs where everyone sat as best as she could with the brace on her leg, she hugged everyone, and then returned to her seat. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Then a frown crossed her face, furrowing her brow a little. "What is it?" Buffy asked.

"How... how can we afford a puppy?" Dawn asked hesitantly, clearly unwilling to risk her gift, but knowing it needed to be asked. "You know it needs vet visits, and a shots, and food, and stuff. And you don't have a job."

Buffy grinned. "Actually, I do. Angel Investigations has been getting some more calls lately, from people who've heard the Slayer is working for them, so Angel decided to make it official. As soon as I'm back up to strength, I start field work, and for now, I'm on the desks. And since we don't have to pay rent...."

"You mean...?"

"You're looking at AI's newest _paid_ employee, Dawnie."

Dawn squealed. "Oh my God! That's so great, Buffy!" Another hug was given, and Spike was pretty sure he was going to be nauseous from the amount of pure joy in the room soon. That is, after he convinced his psyche that it wasn't just incredibly sweet. Which was, of course, something that vampires didn't think.

Lunch was fixed, and Dawn spent every moment she wasn't talking with her head in the puppy books. After lunch, Spike announced that there was a cake, but everyone, including Dawn, declared themselves too full to eat it, so they waited and ate their cake for dinner, something Buffy disapproved of, but allowed Dawn to do, since it was her birthday.

Immediately after dinner, Dawn asked if they could visit the animal shelter the next day. "You want a shelter dog?" Spike asked. "Bit, part of the deal was buying you a puppy from a breeder."

"I can't have a shelter dog?" Dawn asked.

Spike and Buffy looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure, you can, I guess. We just assumed you'd rather have a purebred puppy."

Dawn shook her head. "No. There are lots of dogs out there that need good homes. I want to give one of them a place where he can be safe and warm and loved... those puppies from the breeders will all get bought, but not all of the shelter dogs will." Her face was determined.

Buffy nodded. "It makes sense. Does this mean you want an adult dog, though? Cause you can get puppies from the shelter, too."

Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. Can we go and look, see if there are any adults that I might want, and if not, fill out the application for a puppy?"

Spike's eyes narrowed a little, and he pinned Dawn with his gaze. "You know an awful lot about the animal shelter system, bit."

Dawn flushed a little. "Well, I've kind of wanted a dog for a long time," She explained. "This means so much to me..."

Buffy leaned over and hugged her little sister. "I'm glad, Dawnie," She said, earnestly. "You could use someone to be your friend right now, and I certainly have time to take care of it while you're at school. We can go to the shelter in the morning."

She pulled away from her sister, and looked down at her, her expression much less serious now, though. "But not before nine am, you hear me?"

Dawn giggled, and Spike chuckled. "I hear you. I don't think they'd let me adopt a puppy if I showed up with you before nine am, anyway. You're scary that early in the morning."

Buffy affected a mock-indignant look. "Hey!"

Spike chuckled again, and she glared at him. He held his hands up in a placating gesture, his face curved into a smirk. "Hate to tell you this, pet, but she's right. You're a bloody terror in the morning."

In a playful mood, Buffy stuck out her upper lip and advanced on Spike, swaying her hips. Dawn watched as unobtrusively as she could, wishing she could disappear, so that Buffy and Spike could continue this moment where the closeness just seemed to flow between them, but she wasn't sure it would matter, since they didn't seem aware of her presence anymore, anyway.

"I'm scary?" Buffy asked, making her voice tremble with false hurt.

Spike nodded, and held the smirk. "Very."

She sat down on his knees. "Then how come you don't tremble before me?" She asked.

Spike flashed his yellow eyes briefly, knowing that Buffy was accustomed enough to living with two vampires now that it wouldn't phase her, and she giggled. "Cause I know I hold a special place in your heart," He stated over-dramatically, reaching one hand up to place on his chest. "You could never hurt me."

Buffy giggled at his theatrics, and then sobered, gently covering his hand with her own, smaller one. Then she leaned down and kissed his cheek softly, before rising and heading out of the room. "I'm gonna go read, Dawn," She said. "But I'll probably turn in early. Don't stay up too long, okay?"

In a daze, Dawn nodded, her eyes never leaving Spike and the purely thrilled look on his face.

"Dawn?" Buffy hadn't been looking at her, and turned to see if she'd heard her instructions. Dawn snapped out of her daze, and met her sister's eyes.

"Uh... yeah. I won't stay up too late. When can I get you up tomorrow?" As excited as she was over the possibility that Spike and Buffy weren't impossible yet, there was still a dog to think about, one that was going to be hers pretty soon. 

"Um... ten?"

"Bufffffyyyyyy," Dawn whined. "The shelter opens at ten-thirty, and I want to be there!"

Buffy rolled her eyes and nodded. "Fine. Nine-thirty. And not a minute earlier."

Dawn grinned and nodded back at her sister. "Yeah! Thank you. Nine-thirty."

Buffy glared at her with mock-intensity, and Dawn pretended to be paying incredible attention. "Not a minute earlier."

"I heard you the first time," Dawn responded in a deceptively innocent tone.

The older Summers' rolled her eyes again, and smiled. "Smart-ass."

"I get it from you," Dawn quipped back.

Buffy looked her over once, and then grinned. "Probably."

"Definitely."

"Okay, okay, you win. You get your smart-ass-ness from me. Happy?"

Dawn grinned. "Almost. I will be tomorrow when you get up at nine-thirty and take me to the animal shelter."

Buffy glanced at the clock. "Well, if I'm going to do that, me and my bed had best get acquainted again soon. You'll go to bed by eleven?"

Dawn nodded. "I have to get you up tomorrow if you're going to get up," She answered. "So I'd better be up before you."

Buffy glared. "Hey! I am perfectly capable of getting myself out of bed, thank you very much."

Dawn raised an eyebrow. "You've smashed five alarm clocks since June," She replied.

The Slayer looked a little sheepish. "Well, okay, so there was that."

"Not THAT, Buffy, THOSE. As in, all five of them."

At this point Spike intervened. "Pet, leave your sister alone and let her get some sleep. Slayer, stop baiting the Niblet." He stood up and gave them both a very unserious version of the look their parents used to use on them. They both grinned, and Buffy disappeared.

"'Night!" She called over her shoulder.

"'Night!" Dawn responded.

"Sleep well, Slayer," Spike murmured under his breath, so she couldn't hear it, but Dawn did, and she grinned in satisfaction.

This had been a good day, she decided.

No, better than that. It had been a _great_ day.

* * *

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Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	15. Chapter Fifteen

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: This chapter has a lot of cooing over my imaginary canines, but please, put up with me for a little while. It's cliche, but it's just so cute! And yes, there is a point, and they will play a part in the plot later.

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG-13

* * *

Buffy did indeed arise on time the next morning, but only because there was still a power greater than the Slayer in the universe- the whining of fourteen-year-old hyper-excited younger sisters. "Ugh," she groaned as she rolled over in bed and forced her eyes open, trying to focus on a blurry image of Dawn, who seemed to be jumping around in her vision. "Hold still!"

Dawn, unexpectedly obedient, stopped moving, and Buffy raised a hand to her temples to rub them hard for a moment, before throwing herself out of bed. "Okay, I'm up. You can go away now."

Dawn grinned at her, clearly too happy to be brought down by her sister's foul mood, and sing-songed her answer. "Ok-ay!"

Spike was awakened by similar treatment. "Bloody hell! What are you doing in here?!" He questioned as Dawn unceremoniously ripped the covers off his sleeping body.

"Waking you up, of course!"

He groaned, then sat up and rubbed his head like Buffy had, and Dawn laughed. He looked at her, wondering what was funny, but too tired to put any energy into it. "Why?"

"'Cause you're coming with us to pick out my dog, of course!"

He looked up in surprise. "I am?"

"Yes!"

Despite the early hour, Spike began to smile. Bloody hell if it didn't feel good to be included. Not that he'd ever mention it, of course. He was still a big strong vampire, and he wasn't supposed to have feelings. At least not of the soft, fuzzy forms. "How are we supposed to explain that I can't go in the sun, Bit?" He asked gently, hoping not to disappoint her too much.

"We tell them you have that weird disease, where you burn to a crisp really, really fast." She giggled. "They'll never know we mean literally, not just your skin!"

Spike shook his head, half at the genius of the fourteen year old and half at her hyper-excitement, then threw his legs off the side of the bed. "Okay. I'll be ready in a few minutes, alright?"

Dawn nodded. "I put blood in a cup in the microwave. Just heat it up when you're ready to eat, okay?"

He glanced over at her as he pulled clothes out of his dresser drawer. "You did?"

She nodded. 

"Thank you, Niblet."

She just nodded again, and skipped out of the room, leaving Spike shaking his head, wondering where even humans got that much energy at nine-thirty in the morning. Before he could even fully form his thought, though, she stuck her head back into the room and delivered one last tidbit of information.

"Don't eat the toast, cause it's Buffy's. She'll try and give it to you, 'cause yuo know she doesn't like to eat in the morning, but she needs the calories or she'll never wake up. And don't drink all the coffee, or I'll be mad." She grinned unthreateningly and disappeared once more, and Spike shut the door to change into more suitable going-to-pick-a-furry-pet clothes. Which of course, he found that owned none of, since his wardrobe was 99% black. Sighing, he decided he'd just have to deal with pet hair.

Buffy looked exactly like she'd just rolled out of bed when Spike appeared in the kitchen. She was dressed, but her hair was a wild mess, and she was nibbling toast with an absent look in her eyes and drinking coffee mindlessly. Angel was nowhere to be seen, and Spike supposed that he, like most vampires, wouldn't be up until the evening. Still, he couldn't bring himself to mind that he was awake during the daylight hours, like he usually would have, because Dawn wanted him there. And as much as he would never, ever admit it, that meant a lot to him.

Dawn bounced into the room just as Spike was pressing the buttons on the microwave to heat up his meal. "Almost ready?" She chirped, and he nodded.

"Give me a minute to eat, pet. And let the caffeine wake your sis up." He grinned, and Dawn grinned back, both of them knowing that Buffy before noon was not a pleasant sight, especially if she hadn't had her usual gallon of coffee.

"'Kay. I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?" She didn't wait for an answer, but left the room, and Spike could swear she was almost skipping.

When she came back, she had a black leash and collar in one hand, and two tags in the other. "Where'd you get those, Niblet?" Spike asked, curiously.

"From Angel. I found them right outside my door when I got up this morning."

"Where'd _he_ get them?" Spike asked, wondering when the elder vampire had had the time to go out.

She shrugged. "Dunno. Doesn't matter, though."

Dawn stood still for about thirty seconds, before she started bouncing back and forth from foot to foot, obviously more than hyper-excited about the trip they were going to take. "C'mon!" She whined. "It can't possibly take that long to eat breakfast!"

Spike laughed, and Buffy just gave her sister a glare, though it held no real anger. "Pet, give your sis a moment to wake up," the vampire told the younger Summers.

"She's already had twenty!"

Spike laughed again, shook his head, and finished his blood. Taking to cup to the sink, he snagged Buffy's dishes on the way by, which she protested sleepily, and did them all quickly. "Ready to go then, girls?"

"Yes!"

He looked over at the Slayer. "Need to bring anything along, love?"

Buffy shook her head, and put her hand in her pocket, appearing slightly more lucid than a moment ago. "Nope. I got a check to write for the adoption fee, proof of residence, some miscellaneous stuff we might need. Dawn's got the collar, leash and tags. I think that's it."

"Okay! Let's GO, then!"

Laughing, the older two followed the bouncing teenager out of the hotel. Spike stood under the eaves as Buffy went around to get the car, and then wrapped the thick blanket over himself and made a dash for the car door that Dawn had opened and then slammed behind him once he'd entered. The back windows were heavily tinted, and if he sat right, he didn't need to wear the blanket over his entire body while they drove. 

The ride to the animal shelter was short, and they got there right as the doors were opening. The staff at the front desk smiled as they saw Dawn, trailed by the two older people enter the building, clearly extremely excited. "Can I help you?"

The lady at the desk who had asked the question was older, around fifty or sixty, and overweight, with a bright smile, which Buffy returned as best as she could. Dawn gave a blinding grin. "Yep! We're here to look at the dogs."

The woman's smile didn't desert her face for even the briefest of moments. "Well, then, you need to fill out the adoption form" she pushed it to the front of the desk, where Buffy stood, "and then go look at the dogs!"

Dawn fidgeted as her sister filled out the address and name part of the form, but ended up standing over her shoulder as she filled out the categories as to what they were looking for. "Okay, requirements..."

Dawn looked over the boxes that could be checked. "Nothing, really. Nothing that's on that list, anyway."

Buffy nodded, checked the box marked 'none of the above,' and moved on. "Age?"

The younger sibling pointed at four boxes. "Young puppy, the one that says '9-12 weeks,' the '12-20 weeks' box, and the next two. The ones that say 'adolescent: 4-12 months' and 'young adult: 1-3 years.'"

Buffy nodded. "Size?"

Dawn shrugged. "Um.... more than 40 pounds?" She looked over at Spike. "I hadn't really thought about it, but I'm not too much of a small-dog person, so..."

He nodded. "Sounds about right. Besides, this are just guidelines, pet. You don't necessarily have to stick to them."

Buffy signed the form, and gave it back to the woman at the desk, who smiled up at her. "Ready to go look at our residents, then?" She asked, to which Dawn nodded so enthusiastically that her hair flew over her shoulder and hit Buffy's check. The Slayer gave her younger sister an amused look, and they all followed the woman as she grabbed a leash and started out to the dog room.

Los Angeles was a large place, and the shelter was large, too. Dawn noted the number 70 on the kennel at the end of the place they started, and each kennel housed between one and three adult dogs, or several puppies. "Wow," she said softly.

Buffy glanced over her shoulder at her sister. "We don't have any time constraints today," she reminded her, "so take your time." Dawn nodded.

The woman showed them to each of the kennels that fit their description, of which there were quite a lot. Dawn instantly fell in love with several litters of puppies, but she knew they would be easily adopted, and if she found one she liked, she really wanted to get an adult dog. 

At the very end of the row, the woman briefly pointed out a kennel housing two medium-size, heavily built dogs that were wagging their tails frantically and bouncing on the wire. "Wait," Dawn requested. "Them?" She pointed at the masses of shivering canine flesh, and the woman returned to the kennel.

She looked at the chart on the cage, and turned back to the Summers' and Spike. "The chart says these two go together. Apparently they were adopted out separately a month ago, and returned last week because they both caused severe damage to the houses. Their previous owner said they were angels together, though, so they go out that way."

Dawn turned her pleading eyes on her sister, and Buffy sighed, then threw up her hands. "Fine. Yes, you may look at them."

Dawn grinned so hard Buffy wondered if her face would split, and hugged her quickly. "So, we can take them out and play with them?" She asked the attendant who was helping them, and the woman nodded. 

"Do you want to read this first?" She asked, handing the chart to Dawn, who nodded back. 

According to the papers, 'Donna' and 'Dan' were brother and sister purebred pitbulls, ten months old. Donna weighed 55 pounds and her brother 70, and the reddish-tan color they were was called 'fawn'. Dawn skimmed the rest of the papers, not paying too much attention, and then put it back on the cage door. Meanwhile, the attendant had entered the kennel and was getting both dogs on leashes before she opened it again.

When she opened the door, both dogs leapt on Dawn, who laughed, pushed them gently down, and greeted them equally enthusiastically. The attendant handed both leashes to Dawn, and led them all back towards the lobby, where there were four 'get-acquainted' rooms in which people could meet and play with the dogs or cats without leashes. 

An hour later, Buffy had just signed the paperwork and was now signing the check so that they could take the puppy siblings home with them. The attendant explained that both dogs were already fixed, so there was no need to worry about that, and as part of the adoption packet, they'd had their shots and gotten licenses. She suggested that they take them to the vet as quickly as possible, just in case there was something the shelter missed, but she was pretty sure they would make great pets.

Dawn was grinning from ear to ear as she led her new 'babies' from the shelter on their bright pink and black collars and leashes, respectively. Spike piled into the footwell of the front seat and covered himself with the blanket so that Dawn could sit in the somewhat cramped backseat with the newest members of the family. 

"What are you going to call them?" Buffy asked as she drove them home, something the dogs thought was exceedingly fun.

Dawn looked over at her sister. "I don't know. They can't keep their names, though, cause they sound too much like mine."

Just then, the female came over, plunked both paws in Dawn's lap and lay down across the seat, taking a slurp at the underside of the teenager's chin before the settled. Dawn laughed and petted her, her brother still too intrigued by the view to want attention.

"You kind of look like a Cassidy," She told the dog, and Buffy smiled. 

"Is that what you're going to call her?"

Dawn nodded. "I think I am. And even though I don't really like the names, I think having the same first letter was cute. So maybe her brother should be Cody?"

"I like it."

Dawn grinned, and they rode the rest of the way home without conversation, though there was hardly silence, since the teenager talked to her new dogs the entire way.

Buffy laughed, nearly giggling, as Angel sat bolt-upright in his bed and looked around, only to find two rowdy, adolescent dogs mauling him in affection rather than the demon he'd obviously expected. Dawn stood on the left side of his bed, Buffy right behind her, and both seemed to find it incredibly funny that the vampire had reacted to the dogs as though they were a genuine threat, when in fact, all they wanted was to lick him. 

It had been Dawn's idea to let the dogs wake him, and so far, she was loving the results.

"Angel," She said, when he seemed focused enough to deal with conversation, "meet my new babies." She grinned, and pointed to the dog with the neon pink collar first, then the dog with the black collar. "Meet Cassidy, and Cody."

Angel reluctantly raised one hand to pet the nearest dog, Cassidy. "Hello," He greeted them, as if they were people, and Dawn smiled, glad that she wasn't the only one who thought the dogs would be more family than pets.

"Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"How did we end up with _two_ of them?"

The dry humor in his voice couldn't be missed, and the Slayer laughed, hauling Cody off the bed and shooing him out the door to follow his sister and Dawn. "They were a package. Adopt one, you get 'em both."

"And _why_ did we do that?"

Buffy shrugged. "Dawn fell in love at first sight, and how can two dogs possibly make more trouble than one?"

Angel rolled his eyes. "I can think of lots of ways."

"Yeah, well... They're really cute!"

The vampire smiled slowly, letting it spread across his face leisurely. "So that's it, huh?"  
"What's it?"

"The 'cute-dog, must-have' syndrome."

Buffy ducked her head a little. "Yeah, guess so." She raised her eyes back to his and grinned. "But aren't they?"

"Cute?"

"Yeah."

Angel gave her a real smile. "Yes, Buffy, they certainly are. And Dawn seems so happy."

"I know. I hope they live up to the expectations."

"I'm sure they will. They're young, and there's always trainers, if they're needed."

"Yeah, I guess so."

The door nudged into the back of Buffy's foot, and she looked around to find the larger of the two dogs trying to get his head through the small crack. She laughed, reached down to rub his ear, and nodded to Angel.

"I'm gonna go bond with our newest family members," she told him. "You coming?"

"In a minute. I just woke up, I gotta get dressed first."

"Okay. See you in a few."

With that, Buffy pushed the dog firmly from the doorframe and followed him out into the living room where Dawn was playing tug-of-war with a rope bone and the seemingly-more playful sibling. 

"Cassidy!"

Buffy laughed as her sister landed on her butt on the floor from one of the dog's particularly strong tugs. "It's a good look on you," She told her sister jokingly.

Dawn glared. "Gee, thanks."

* * *

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Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	16. Chapter Sixteen

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: This is going to be, eventually, S/B. But it's long, and it's a story about Spike, Buffy and Dawn, so eventually might be pretty far in. I apologize to anyone who wanted a straight S/B- this is going to be as much a Spike/Dawn friendship as anything else.

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG-13

* * *

Three days later, the house full of people was getting used to the dogs, and Dawn was still riding on a cloud from her new 'babies' arrivals. Angel and Spike were in the process of putting up a fence in part of the yard so that the dogs could go outside unattended, but until it was completed, they had to be walked four or five times a day. There were enough people in the house, though, that it wasn't a bother, and Dawn insisted on going on every single one.

Since the vampires could only work at night, and it wasn't a horribly quiet business, progress on the fence was slow. The sun didn't set until nearly eight at night in August, and residential-area noise-laws being what they were, they could only work for about two hours before they were forced to come in. Still, the other occupants of the hotel had all seen the vampires' strength and speed at work, and knew they could be getting a lot more done if they just didn't bicker incessantly.

"You bloody poof! Just stick the bleedin' nail gun against the wood, and press!"

They were laying pieces of six inch wide, one inch thick and seven foot long board alongside each other on the ground, and then pressing two by fours across them, nailing it all together. Spike worked fast and a little messily, but Angel worked precisely and cleanly, and had only half of his part of the fence-pieces done.

"Some of us would like the fence not to look like it was put together by six-year-olds!"

"It doesn't! It looks like it was put together by a bored but entirely competent vampire!"

"Spike. It barely stands."

Spike growled and hefted his piece of wood up. True, the cross bars were crooked and the nails shot in at all manner of angles, but it stuck together the right way, and Angel was forced to admit that it looked as though it would work, if not be aesthetically pleasing.

"See?"

Angel just sighed and got back to working on his pieces of wood.

Spike sat there and watched, smoking a cigarette, for about five minutes before he was ready to scream. Throwing the cigarette on the ground and stomping it out angrily, he headed for the hotel. "Let me know if you ever want to put the bleeding fence in the ground!" He shouted behind him.

Of course, his anger at his grand-sire was somewhat tempered by the fact that as soon as he opened the door, two piles of muscles and fur launched themselves down the stairs in his direction, connecting solidly with his body. Spike laughed, unable to stay mad with the wriggling heaps of good-will on top of him, and rubbed down both of their sides before continuing into the lobby.

"Spike?" Buffy called, appearing out of Angel's office, "You guys done for tonight?"

Spike shook his head and rolled a tennis ball across the room with the toe of his boot for Cody. Cassidy took off after him, and soon both dogs were engaged in a mock-battle over the ball. "Nope. My bloody grandsire wants every nail to be in perfectly, so he's finishing it himself."

Buffy grinned, then smothered it as best as she could. "Oh. Okay."

"Is the Niblet in bed?" Spike asked briskly, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

"It's only nine o'clock, Spike."

He looked at his watch, and then shrugged. "Guess it is, isn't it?" He sunk down on the couch in the middle of the room and propped his boot-clad feet up in a move sure to make Angel have a heart attack, despite its lack of beating. "Make sure she goes to bed on time tonight, kay? We have to go talk to the school tomorrow."

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, I know. I promised her the dogs could come along and we'd take them to the dog-run afterwards. Do you mind sitting in the car for a while? I'm sure we can find a shady spot so you don't have to sit under the blanket for too long."

Spike nodded. "Sure, pet. I'll be fine. I'm sure the Niblet desperately wants to show off her new pets." He grinned. "She's mighty proud of these two lumps o' fur."

"Hey, I heard that!"

"Well, you are!"

"Yeah, but they're not 'lumps of fur'!"

Spike grinned. "Okay, okay." Tapping his hand on his thigh, he caught Cassidy's attention, and she bounded over with only the kind of energy an adolescent dog can have. Then he lowered his voice and started to murmur to her. "You don't mind when I call you a lump o' fur, do you, pet?" Cassidy reached up and swiped his face with her tongue from chin to nose in answer.

The next morning, Dawn awoke early again, but this time it was out of nerves, not excitement. She fed the dogs, who gulped down their morning portion of dog chow with enthusiasm not to be rivaled by anything except maybe vampires feeding, and then started to clean the kitchen, mostly because she couldn't think of anything better to do. By now, though, she remembered to put the coffee pot on before she did anything else in the morning.

Buffy arose nearly an hour later, and stumbled into the kitchen, heading for the coffee pot. Dawn poured her first cup silently, then grabbed a mug for her sister. "Thanks," Buffy mumbled, still mostly asleep, as she collapsed at the table.

A couple of cups of coffee later, a slightly more awake Buffy noticed the fervor with which her sister was moving around the hotel. Picking up this, re-arranging that, folding that. When Dawn went to get the vacuum cleaner, Buffy stopped her by standing in her way. "Are you okay?" She asked, point-blank.

Dawn nodded. "I'm fine."

Buffy put her hand on her sister's shoulder, and tried to get Dawn to look her in the eye. "You're not starting school today, you know. This is just a meeting to decide your classes and stuff. It's no big deal."

Dawn smiled weakly. "I know that. It's just..."

"It's just what?" Buffy asked, uncharacteristically gently.

"It just kind of makes it all real, you know?"

Buffy nodded. "I know."

Dawn reached out for her sister, and Buffy wrapped her in a tight hug. "I'm sorry, Dawn."

"It's not your fault." The teenager pulled away from the Slayer, and wiped her eyes a little. "It's just that it feels like we're really going on with life, now, and it just feels..."

"Wrong?" Buffy supplied.

"Yeah."

Buffy was teary, too, by this point, but she put on a strong expression and faced her sister. "Willow, Tara and Giles would want us to get on with our lives," She told her sister. "You know they would."

Dawn nodded. "I know. But it doesn't make me feel any different."

Buffy could think of no answer for that, so she just hugged her sister again, trying to convey comfort the only way she could think of, for the moment. This was how Spike found them when he stumbled out of bed moments later, looking for his morning blood with almost the same kind of single-mindedness as Buffy had for her coffee.

"Hey, pets." He was instantly awake when he saw the tears in Dawn's eyes. He couldn't see Buffy's face, since she was facing away from him, but from the grip on her sister, he suspected he'd find them in her eyes, too. "Are you two alright?"

Dawn looked up at him and shook her head gently, but smiled slightly through the tears. "No," She told him. "I don't think we'll be okay for a long time."

Spike nodded, understanding what she meant. "We all miss Red and the others," he told her. "But they would want us to be happy, you know."

Dawn nodded. "I know. And even if I didn't know, Buffy just told me. But it doesn't make how I feel any different."

The vampire nodded, and gathered both of the Summers' girls into his arms as best as he could, Buffy's back pressed against his front, and Dawn's head on both his and her sister's shoulders.

They stood there for long moments before Dawn pulled away from them, causing Spike to back up a little, lest the Slayer realize whose arms she was in and get pissy. "Better now?" He asked the younger girl gently, and she nodded. 

"Not good, but better." She attempted to smile. "C'mon, let's go eat. We've got to be somewhere in like, half an hour."

"Good thing it's pretty close," Buffy remarked. "Since none of us seem to be moving all that fast this morning." She smiled, too, telling them that she wasn't actually upset, and disappeared into the kitchen.

Spike let Dawn take him by the arm and walk him in the same direction. "So, what's for breakfast, love?"

Dawn looked at him with a strange expression. "What did you think, Spike? Blood."

The vampire laughed. "No, I mean, what kind of _food's_ for breakfast?"

"Toast for me and Buffy, and Wheatabix for you. But you're not eating at the table with us if you put blood on it."

Spike grinned. "Kay. No Wheatabix-and-blood-eating at the table with Buffy and Dawn, check."

Then he frowned. "Hey. How come I get to drink blood at the table, but if I put Wheatabix in it, suddenly I'm not allowed?"

Dawn grimaced. "Cause it's gross!"

"Why? You eat Wheatabix."

"Used to. Not anymore. Believe me, I could barely stand to look at it after I first saw you make that disgusting concoction."

"That didn't answer my question."

"It just is!"

"So what, if I say that I suddenly find toast and jam disgusting, you have to eat it somewhere else?"

"No!"

"Then why do you get to say it about my blood and Wheatabix?"

"Because blood is disgusting to start with, and letting you eat it at the table is a privilege. And then when you put that cereal in it, it just gets to be too much to deal with!"

Spike grinned, enjoying the gentle bickering session with the Slayer's sister. She was slowly relaxing from the earlier emotional tension, and he knew she needed that before she could go to the school and face something else that she would no doubt find trying. Shamelessly, he continued to bait her. "But why is blood disgusting, and whether it is or not, why do you get to decide?"

Dawn threw up her hands and growled, something that made Spike grin even harder. "Ugh!"

Satisfied, Spike poured his blood over his Wheatabix and sat down at the table across from Dawn and her toast and jam.

Duveneck wasn't a huge school, but it was pretty good-sized. The campus was mainly empty as they went to see the counselor they'd made an appointment with, but the occasional student escorted by a parent or two could be seen heading to or from their own meetings. Imagining the campus with a thousand students on it was giving Dawn a headache, so she was attempting to ignore her own mental images, as well as that _wasn't _working.

Dawn walked between Buffy and Spike, the Slayer with an arm around her waist and the vampire with one over her shoulder. She wouldn't admit it, but the family-like atmosphere that it brought to mind was making her feel all warm inside, even though she knew it wouldn't last. 

When they entered the main office, Buffy let go of her and walked up to the desk, checking to see if the counselor was ready to see them. Finding out that she was still with her last meeting, the Slayer returned to sit down with Spike and Dawn. "So," She asked Dawn, presumably to give her something to think about, "What do you want to take?"

Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I have to find out what classes I have to take before I can decide what classes I want to take."

"Are you still going to take that art class that you and Spike signed up for?"

"Yeah. It only runs for three more weeks anyway."

"Do you think you'll sign up again?"

Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'll have to start school and find out how much time I have."

A rather large woman in a professional pants-suit came out of the hall to their right, and spoke briefly to the receptionist. Then she came over to greet them, a smile on her face. "Dawn Summers?" She asked, putting her hand out, and all three rose as Dawn shook her hand.

"Yeah."

"And you are?" She glanced at Buffy and Spike.

"Buffy Summers, her sister. And this is... William, a family friend."

The counselor shook both of their hands, too, and nodded. "If you'd come with me?"

It turned out that the meeting didn't actually take all that long. They had to show her the slip of paper from the admissions office, so that Dawn could be formally entered into the computer, and then the counselor showed them a list of the classes tenth-graders had to take. There were five required classes and seven periods, and she had to take at least six classes. In the end, she added a ceramics class to her schedule, and left one period empty. 

"Okay," the counselor told them cheerfully. "You're all set! This is your schedule-" she handed a piece of paper to Dawn "and this is the class, teacher, room number and period. Here's a copy of which class you'll have which days, since it can be kind of confusing the first time you try and work with it, and welcome to Duveneck!"

Dawn nodded, took the paper, and left the room silently. She really didn't want to be rude, but she couldn't help it. The school was stifling her. As much as the talk earlier in the morning had helped her clear some things up, it still felt like betraying Willow, Tara and Giles' memories.

She could hear her sister and Spike making excuses for her. "I'm sorry," Buffy told the counselor. "Our mother died about a year ago and then three close friends in the Sunnydale quake- she's still having a really hard time with it."

The counselor's voice was sympathetic. "Poor girl. Tell her she can come see me anytime she wants, alright? I'm always here."

"Thank you. I will. It was nice to meet you." The chairs creaked as they stood up, and Dawn waited for them to reappear before walking out towards the car, giving no outward sign that she noticed them following.

Pulling open the rear door, she grabbed Cody and Cassidy's collars and let the dogs hop out of the car, panting. It was August and though it was morning, it was warm. She had been concerned about leaving the dogs in the car, but Buffy had assured her it would take just a minute. Still, they had parked in the shade and made sure to come back every fifteen minutes to check on them. 

Spike dashed across the parking lot until he reached the shade they had parked the car in, and then discarded the blanket. Careful to stay out of the sun, he opened the trunk, grabbed the gallon milk jug of water they'd brought along and the dog dish, then poured it out for the pups.

Keeping hold of their collars, Dawn let the dogs drink, then piled them back into the car. "The dog run, now?" She asked, and Buffy nodded.

"Yeah. Ready?"

"Yep."

* * *

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* * *

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	17. Chapter Seventeen

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: As always, I apologize for the wait. I know I'm losing people's interest because by the time a new chapter comes out, they've forgotten the plot of the story, but I really just can't work any faster. Nasty, nasty real life. I really appreciate the fans I do have, so keep reviewing and letting me know you're around, okay? Thanks!

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG-13

* * *

Buffy had initially been a little wary about taking two adolescent dogs to a dog run without being sure of how they behaved, but Dawn had pointed out that they would have to find out eventually, and Buffy could always control them physically if she had to. The park would be pretty empty at eleven on a weekday morning in August, so it was actually a good time, she'd argued, too, and in the end, Buffy had either seen the wisdom of Dawn's thinking or a possible way to end her sister's whining, and took it.

There were three other dogs in the run when they got there, a geriatric-looking boxer and his equally geriatric-looking owner, sitting in the corner, the boxer panting and the old man rubbing the dog's head, and a big furry Malemute tumbling playfully with a border collie about the size of Cody and Cassidy, but weighing a quarter as much.

The pups perked up on the end of their leashes as they were walked towards the run, appearing extremely interested, but their tails wagged and Buffy saw no active ill-will on either their part or the dogs inside the run, even as hard as she was looking.

"Can we go in?" Dawn asked impatiently, already in the little area where the first gate opened into, so that it was harder for the dogs to escape as people left. She'd unhooked Cody and Cassidy from their leashes and both dogs were wild with excitement. Buffy scanned the place once more, peered over the fence at the Malemute and the border collie who'd stopped instantly to come meet their potential new playmates, then nodded.

"Okay."

Dawn rolled her eyes, then pushed open the second gate and let both the human and canine siblings free. The dogs bounded out and began to sniff tails with the others, even the old boxer trotting slowly over to meet the new people.

Buffy leaned back on against the bulletin board and watched Dawn play with her dogs, as well as the Malemute and the border collie for a while, laughing and running and throwing tennis balls in every direction, watching as the dogs scattered to dash after them.

In one sunny corner, Buffy could see another figure, one of the dog's owners, she suspected. It was a woman, about thirty-five, and she was keeping a close eye on the Malemute, calling it over and giving it water every once in a while. Where the owner of the border collie was, she wasn't sure. That was, until a slight movement in the darkest, shadiest corner of the dog run caught her Slayer-trained eye, and she noticed a boy about sixteen, sitting in a lounge chair, watching Dawn tussle with the dogs. He'd been perfectly still for a long time now, and Buffy wondered about his motives.

But, as he rose, she checked him out with both her vision and her Slayer-given spider-senses, and felt nothing. As he went to approach Dawn, it all clicked into place, and she smiled. So, her sister had an admirer? A shy one, from the looks of it, but not bad-looking, she was forced to concede.

Dawn was nervous as hell as the boy walked over to greet her and the four dogs. "Hello," He said softly, and smiled. "These two yours?"

Dawn nodded. "Y-yeah. That's Cody, and that's Cassidy."

"They're brother and sister?"

Dawn nodded again. "I just got them. From the animal shelter."

"How old are they?" The boy leaned down and rubbed Cassidy's neck as she trotted over to greet him.

"Ten months. Is the border collie your dog?"

He looked a little surprised. "You know what she is?"

"Yeah. I've loved dogs since I was little... I know an embarrassing amount about the different breeds." Dawn grinned.

"She's mine." Standing up, he whistled once to catch the dog's attention, and then called to her. "This is Becca," he told Dawn. "She's just about to turn five, the old lady, and she's a border collie, as you already noticed." He affectionately ruffled the long fur behind Becca's ears, and the dog wagged her tail while panting exhaustedly at the puppies, who were now yanking on each others' tails.

The boy laughed. "Little fireballs, they are."

"Yeah." She looked over at the boy, and decided to just get it over with. "I'm Dawn."

"Kent. I have two last names, unfortunately, but the alternative is Ken, and I'd rather not be equated with a doll."

Dawn laughed lightly. "Okay. Do you go to Duveneck?"

He nodded. "I'll be a junior in the fall. I didn't think I'd seen you there before." He frowned. "But there's an awful lot of people in that school."

Dawn shook her head. "You haven't seen me. I lived in Sunnydale last year."

Kent's eyes sharpened instantly. "Where the earthquake was?"

She nodded. "I lost part of my family in it." That was true. Willow, Tara and Giles had been family to the Scooby Gang, for as long as Dawn could remember. Their passing was just as hard to deal with as her mother's, maybe harder because of the physical condition she'd been in when she'd gotten the news.

"Sorry."

Dawn shrugged, and didn't really respond. "I'm going to Duveneck now, though. I'll be a sophomore."

Kent grinned, and Dawn caught her sister waving at her in the corner of her vision. "I got to go," She told him. "Buffy's getting impatient."

"Buffy?"

Dawn wrinkled her nose. "I know, weird name. At least I got 'Dawn.' I don't know what our parents were thinking."

"She's your sister?"

Dawn nodded. "She's twenty-two. She takes care of me, now that our parents are gone."

"Must be rough."

The Slayer's sister shrugged. "It is, sometimes. We live with some friends, and she got a job, though, so we're adjusting." Grabbing Cassidy as she dashed by, Dawn put the leash on as quickly as possible. "Any chance you could grab that one?" She asked, grinning.

Kent reached down and called Cody to him. The dog, too smart to come when he was called, ignored him. "Doesn't seem to want to come meet me," he remarked.

Dawn shook her head. "Smart dog. Knows his sister's all leashed up, doesn't want to be leashed up, too." She grinned. "He'll come when we start to leave, though." Sure enough, Cody came bounding over as she started to walk Cassidy towards the gate, Kent moving with them.  
"Do you and Becca come here a lot?" Dawn asked.

"Sometimes. I'll see you at school, though."

"Okay." Kent started to hang back as they neared the gate, and Dawn waved as soon as she was a little farther away. "Bye!"

Buffy was grinning as she took the second leash from Dawn and grabbed Cody. "Meet someone special?" She teased, and Dawn blushed a little.

"Maybe."

Buffy raised her eyebrow. "Oh? Really? Do tell." She handed the second leash to her sister, and hooked her arm through Dawn's. "Is he nice?"

Dawn looked at her feet and responded shyly. "Yeah."

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"What's his name, who's his dog, where's he go to school, how old is he, when will you see him again?"

"Buffy!" Dawn was laughing now. "God, you're nosy!"

Buffy grinned. "I'm a big sister, it's my job. So, tell."

"I can't. I'm a little sister, it's my job." Dawn grinned, then ducked as Buffy pulled back to swing gently at her head. "Okay, okay. His name is Kent, he doesn't want to be called Ken, he goes to Duveneck, he's going to be a junior, his dog's name is Becca and she's almost five, and she's a border collie."

Buffy raised an eyebrow again. "Wow."

Dawn fidgeted a little as they walked the dogs back to the car. "Wow, what?" She asked, a little nervously.

"Wow, you said a hell of a lot without taking a breath!"

"Oh." Dawn smiled embarrassedly, and looked at the ground again. "I did, didn't I." It wasn't a question, but Buffy smiled back and answered he anyway.

"Yes, you did. But you're all excited to have a guy that likes you, so it's okay. All teenage girls do the 'talk about a guy for fifteen hours straight' thing at some point in their lives." She grinned. "You should have heard Willow complain about how much I talked about Angel during our junior year in high school." Her smile faded, and both girls sobered a little, but neither of them felt an unmanageable urge to weep, anymore.

They'd just started to talk about their friends again, the ones that were gone, and sometimes Dawn really enjoyed it. She'd liked Willow and Tara an awful lot, they'd been kind to her and treated her like an equal, and taken care of her when Buffy had needed a baby-sitter, and it was good to hear stories about them. But it still drove everyone into somewhat of a 'blah' mood, as Cordelia called it. They missed their friends, and couldn't help it. They were gone, and not coming back, and Dawn knew they had a right to mourn them properly, no matter how much Cordy complained about their 'blah-moods' turning away customers.

They were silent the rest of the way to the car, letting the dogs sniff and pee on the dirt by the side of the path, both lost in their thoughts of the witches and Buffy's watcher. But, oddly, they weren't mired down by sadness, instead, they were starting to remember the good times with their friends, and occasionally small smiles crept over their faces at the mental images of Willow or Tara saying something funny, or Giles polishing his glasses for the millioneth time during an inopportune or uncomfortable moment.

Pulling open the trunk of the car, Buffy poured out the last of the water for the thirsty pups and then took Cody's leash from Dawn. "Spike?"

The vampire turned around in the front seat, where they'd left him. The edge of the park was extremely shady, and they'd managed to find a spot for him to sit without having to crouch in one of foot wells. "Yeah?"

"You okay?"

"I'm good. Nice spot you found, Slayer."

She smiled. "Good. I was hoping you wouldn't have to be all scrunchied in one of the foot-wells."

Spike's tone was dry. "Believe me, Slayer, so was I." He raised his head and sniffed the air, then turned a piercing gaze on Dawn. "Niblet has a crush..." He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to respond.

Dawn blushed a little and ducked her head. "Yeah, maybe..."

Without turning his head to her, Spike spoke to the elder Summers' sister. "Is he suitable?" He asked, seriously.

Dawn looked up, surprised. "What?"

"Is he suitable?"

Buffy smiled tolerantly and nodded. "He's human, Spike, and he sounds like a decent enough guy."

The vampire nodded slowly, not looking entirely content. Dawn, meanwhile, was not happy.

"Hey! Both of you! Right here!"

Buffy turned to her sister and smiled, then leaned down and stage-whispered in her ear. "He's just a little over-protective of you, you know."

"Just don't want Niblet to end up a vampire, you know, it totally wrecks a bloke's personality."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "What's that say about you, then?" She asked, teasingly.

Spike ran a hand through his hair dramatically. "Well, I of course, was improved rather than detracted from."

Buffy snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Hey! I'll have you know that William was a damn whiny, poetry-writing blockhead. I'm a huge improvement on him." Spike's tone held the faintest traces of bitterness at his own human personality.

Buffy, realizing the seriousness of what they were getting into, turned to Dawn and handed her the dog's leash, effectively changing the subject. "I'll just go throw out the water, kay? Get them in the car, I'm sure Spike can help you."

Dawn nodded, and threw the ends of the leashes to Spike, who grabbed them. The dogs got in the car willingly enough, but they knew by now that they would jump out while someone were trying to close the door, if given a chance. Therefore, Spike held the leashes taut as Dawn pulled away and closed the door quickly.

"Which seat do you want?" She asked Spike through the open passenger seat window.

He shrugged. "I'm gonna be curled up in a ball on the floor, so I might as well be in the backseat with the dogs. Not really gonna be comfortable no matter where I am."

"They might step on you."

He shrugged again. "I'm tough."

"I think I should sit in the backseat, Spike. I can push them off, I can move around."

"You're easier to bruise up, Niblet. I'll take it."

Exasperated, Dawn went for her last resort in Spike-arguments. "Buffy!"

When they finally arrived back at the hotel, it was lunchtime, and Cordelia was on the phone with the local pizza place. "What do the dogs want?" She asked Dawn, covering the mouthpiece with her hand.

"They shouldn't eat pizza..." Dawn answered, and Cordelia just looked at her.

"Okay, okay, so they'll probably end up with a little. But just a piece of mine, they don't need anything to themselves."

Satisfied with that, Cordelia nodded, and turned back to the telephone. "Make that last one a large instead of a medium," she ordered, and then fed the person on the other end of the line Angel's credit card number. 

When she hung up, she turned back to the group who was busily stowing the water dish, jug, leashes and baggies and started to question them. "So, how did it go? Anything interesting happen at the dog run?"

"Interesting like how?" Buffy asked, her brow furrowed.

"I don't know. Like, meet anybody you'd like to see again, or meet anybody you'd NEVER like to see again..."

Dawn laughed. "I met a guy..."

From the corner of the room, Angel's deep baritone spoke up with interest. "Really."

Instantly shy, Dawn scuffed her feet and looked at the floor. Buffy leaned over and whispered to Cordy so that only she and Dawn could hear. "She'll tell you later," She said. "Spike and Angel are just in over-protection mode right now."

Cordy nodded knowingly, and took Dawn's arm, leading her away and up the staircase. "C'mon. I'll help you pick out what you want to wear next time you see this guy..."

* * *

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Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_

Back to _A Little Part of the Buffiverse_ Fanfic


	18. Chapter Eighteen

* * *

****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: As always, I apologize for the wait. I know I'm losing people's interest because by the time a new chapter comes out, they've forgotten the plot of the story, but I really just can't work any faster. Nasty, nasty real life. I really appreciate the fans I do have, so keep reviewing and letting me know you're around, okay? Thanks!

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG-13

* * *

Buffy was getting restless. She was bored with television, bored with the computer, bored with books. She was even starting to get bored with sparring the two vampires she lived with. She knew what she needed to alleviate the boredom, too. But her over-protective ex and his grandchilde wouldn't let her patrol!

She was strong enough now, she knew. She wouldn't go alone, not just yet, in case something came along that was stronger than the average vampire, but as long as Spike or Angel was with her, she wouldn't be in any danger, and she could hold her own. She was almost healed, the only time she still felt the effects of her earlier injury was when she exerted herself for a long period of time.

"Guys, I swear, I know my limits. I've stayed away from working for almost three months now, I'm back in shape."

Angel frowned. "Buffy, you're still weak." Spike nodded his agreement. 

"Pet, you need more rest before you get back to taking on the big ol' beasties." For once, Spike and Angel were in full agreement about something, and it had to be this. It was just her luck.

"I can do this."

"It's not safe."

Buffy sighed, then threw her hands in the air. "You know what? I don't care. _I_ think it is, and I'm going. Someone can come with me or not." She knew full well there was no way either vampire was going to let her patrol by herself, and sure enough, the thumping footsteps behind her confirmed her knowledge.

She entered her bedroom to get out her patrol clothes, which she hadn't had occasion to wear in a while, and the footsteps headed towards the living room. They weren't nearly heavy enough to be Angel's footsteps, so she guessed that Spike had drawn the short straw for patrolling with her. Either that, or the long one. She wasn't quite sure whether the vampires were fighting about who _got_ to go with her, or who _had_ to go with her.

Eyeing the leather pants in the back of her closet, she reluctantly shook her head. Leathers were fun, but those ones were new and not worn in. Best not to wear something that constricting while she still tired easily. Instead, she grabbed a pair of workout pants and a sports bra, then pulled a tank top on over it. Grabbing her leather jacket, she decided she'd leave it at the door if it seemed too warm. 

She completed the ensemble with her boots, which, though they were more stiff than tennis shoes or any other kind of athletic wear, were much better for caving in vampire noses. Heading into the living room, she grabbed several stakes and started putting them up her sleeves, in her pockets and down the edges of her bra. Starting to grab a sword from the weapons case, she realized she didn't have a clue how the citizens of LA would react to a girl carrying a broadsword.

"Angel?"

He appeared in the doorway, looking broody and miserable. "Yes?"

"Am I likely to get myself arrested for being all sword-carrying-girl in this wonderful city?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Don't go into the downtown and they won't bother you. And if they do, hand them this." He handed her a few Angel Investigations cards. "They pretend not to know what's going on, but most of them are aware, at the very least, that we keep carnage to a minimum where we're seen."

She nodded. "Kay. Cool." Looking around, she realized she didn't see the blond vampire anywhere. "Spike!"

He appeared in a different doorway. "Yeah?"

"Ready?"

Looking himself and then her quickly over, he nodded. "Yep." Glancing at his grandsire, he started towards the door. "Peaches is staying in tonight."

Buffy nodded, caught Angel's eye and then nodded to him, as well. "Okay. We'll be back in a couple of hours."

"Don't tire yourself out, Buffy."

"I won't."

He nodded his agreement, and the blond Slayer and vampire swept out the door, Buffy incredibly glad to be out of the house and ready to kick some demon butt. It had been far too long.

"Catch!" Buffy threw a stake end-over-end at Spike, who caught it in midair and dusted the vampire he was wrestling with. Moving with his incredible preternatural speed, he appeared only seconds later in front of the Slayer, and dusted the one she was just about to take out. She glared at him. "I almost got him!"

Spike smirked. "I know." His face went serious. "But you're getting tired. We should head back before the demons sense something's up."

She nodded, not wanting to stop, but seeing the wisdom in his statement. "Yeah, I guess so." Grinning, she stomped in the little pile of vampire dust by her feet. "So, did you have as much fun as I did?"

He grinned back. "Yeah, pet, I think I did."

"Good." Cheerfully and as though it was nothing out of the norm, she hooked her arm through his, and they started walking back to the hotel in companionable silence.

When they got back, Buffy disentangled her arm from the vampire's and walked into the lobby, sighing loudly. "God, that felt good," She announced to no one in particular.

"Buffy!" Dawn looked surprised. "You were out?"

She nodded. "It felt so good..."

"Are you sure you're strong enough?"

Buffy nodded her head at the vampire who was entering the room behind her. "I took Spike with me." She knew that would be the end of the discussion with Dawn, as much as she trusted the vampire to keep her and her sister safe. And, indeed, the teenager just nodded her head.

"Okay."

Angel, however, was not going to be appeased so easily. Sitting in the corner and glaring at a book more than reading it, he didn't bother looking up when the Slayer and his grandchilde entered the room. 

Buffy looked over at the older vampire and sighed. Handing her stakes to Spike, she shrugged out of her jacket and threw it over the back of the couch. Then she walked up to Angel, put her hands on her hips and waited for him to look up at her.

"Can we talk?" It wasn't a request.

He nodded, and she turned abruptly to walk out of the room. A little more slowly, he followed her, and Dawn watched the whole thing with unabashed interest.

Spike threw the stakes back in a chest of them that his grandsire kept around. "Niblet, don't stare," he chided. "Even Angel's arse ain't that good lookin'."

Dawn turned towards him distractedly, and then looked back at the disappearing vampire. Finally, Spike's statement registered and she whipped around to face him. "What?! Ew!"

Spike grinned. "Yeah, well, that's not what you looked like you thought a minute ago, pet."

Dawn shook her head vehemently. "God, _yuck! _It's _Angel_."

"And?"

"And that's not enough?" She asked, incredulously.

"Didn't seem to stop your sis, did it?"

Dawn wrinkled her face. "I've known Angel since I was nine. He's like an older brother."

Spike's face clouded briefly, but he forced it away quickly. "Glad to hear that. 'Cause the last thing we need is a Summers' sisters bitch-fight over the old poof."

Dawn shook her head. "Yuck. And no way." Turning back to her book, she didn't notice the stormy expression on the vampire's face or the angry stalk in his steps as he left the room.

Buffy had led Angel back to his room, where she knew they could talk uninterrupted. Shoving him down onto his butt on the bed, she started to pace back and forth, closing and latching the door but otherwise being entirely unproductive.

"What is it, Buffy?" He asked softly.

She turned to face him, but didn't meet his eyes. "You."

He nodded slowly. "Okay. What, specifically, is the problem between you and me?"

"You're making me guilty!"

Angel raised an eyebrow in question. "I certainly hadn't intended to make you feel that way."

She sighed. "I know. It's stupid. And it's my fault."

"Is this about... Spike?" Angel asked, tentatively.

She turned away, not wanting to see his face when she answered. "Maybe."

Angel sighed this time, and then silence reigned in the room for a long moment. "Okay," he finally said.

She turned around to face him once more. "'Okay' what?"

"'Okay,' I guess you're right and we need to talk about this. I was just trying to ignore it, and it isn't working anymore."

"No, I don't think it is." She shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Angel."

He smiled back just as sadly. "Don't be. What we had can't be, and if this was going on in Sunnydale, you never would have told me. It's only because you're here that it's causing any problems at all."

Buffy's face clouded, unknowingly looking just like the other vampire in the living room of the hotel. "Maybe we shouldn't be in such close quarters anymore. I can find somewhere, take Dawn and maybe Spike with me."

Angel shook his head, hard. "No, Buffy. I didn't mean it like that. I like having you here, and it's good for Dawn to have people around. Plus, it would cost money to rent a place, and right now you don't need to hassle of trying to make ends meet."

She nodded slowly. "Are you sure? Because it can be hard to live with people in a small space, I know."

He nodded back. "I'm sure. And I'll try to curb my jealous feelings as best as I can."

"Okay." She shifted her weight, not really sure what else to say. "I'm sorry, Angel, I really am."

The sad smile returned. "I know. I am too. But we'll make this work, and maybe you and Spike can make something work, too. As much as I hate that idea." He held out his arms. "You still my girl?" He asked softly, unsure, for the first time, what the answer would be.

She smiled. "Of course I am, Angel." Moving into his embrace, she held him tightly as his large, muscled arms squeezed her to him. "It's different now, but I'll always be your girl."

"Thank you," he whispered, and kissed her quickly on the top of the head.

"Thank you, Angel."

It was dark in the sisters' room that night when Dawn decided she wanted to talk. "Buffy?"

"What?"

"Can we talk?"

"Now?"

"Yeah."

"Why now? Why not in the morning, when the sun's up, and I'm not trying to sleep?" The Slayer sounded grouchy.

Dawn sighed. "Okay."

Silence reigned for a few moments, then Buffy heaved a sigh similar to her sister's, and the sheets rustled as she propped herself up on one elbow. "What is it?" She asked.

"It's okay. It can wait until tomorrow."

Buffy sighed again. "No, I want to know. What is it, Dawnie?"

There was rustling from Dawn's side of the room, too. "What's going on?" She asked.

"With..."

"You and Spike."

"Oh." There was silence again for what seemed like a long time.

"Buffy?"

"Yeah."

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just not really sure how to answer that question, honestly."

"Well, do you like him?"

Buffy sighed. "It isn't that simple. I'm not sure there's one answer to that question."

"Are you in love with him?"

A pause, and then, softly, she replied. "No. But I could be, if I let myself."

Both were quiet for long moments after her declaration. Dawn piped up first.

"Are you going to? Let yourself?"

Buffy's sheets rustled again as the Slayer fidgeted. "I don't know. It's complicated. He's not all the person you see, Dawn. He's also a killer, restrained by what's basically an electric collar. He revels in terror and pain. He's not human, but what he is isn't as important as who he was just a few years ago."

"He's never treated me badly," Dawn interjected softly.

Buffy shook her head in the dark. "No. He hasn't. I'm not saying that a vampire can't care or love, I learned a long time ago that isn't true. But he took to you from day one. He tried to kill me, repeatedly, before he decided he loved me."

"And you can't forgive him?" Dawn asked, softly. "We see a lot of people do a lot of things, knowing what we know," she said, sounding immensely older and wiser than she was. "Forgiving is what we do."

"I think I could forgive him, Dawn. Forgive him for me, maybe for Xander and Willow. For Giles and Angel. But for the other people who he really did kill? I don't know."

"Will you try, Buffy? He really does love you. And... I think he could be good for you."

Buffy laughed, and Dawn furrowed her forehead in confusion. "What?" She asked.

"Listen to little Dawnie, giving out such sage advice," Buffy answered. "When did you grow up?" She sounded faintly sad.

Dawn's voice was sad, too, when she replied. "I guess we've been so busy that we haven't had a lot of time to listen to each other lately," she said. "I've been wrapped up so tightly in ourselves that I've been forgetting other people's needs."

"No you haven't, Dawn. You're young and grieving. You haven't been any more insensitive than anyone else in your situation would be. And we've all be wrapped up in our own needs lately."

"Promise to thump me and make me come out of it next time I do that?" Dawn asked.

"Promise. If you'll do the same for me."

"Promise. I love you, Buffy."

"Love you, too, Dawn."

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	19. Chapter Nineteen

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****

Catastrophe

by

Princess McPhee

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Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note: As always, I apologize for the wait. I know I'm losing people's interest because by the time a new chapter comes out, they've forgotten the plot of the story, but I really just can't work any faster. Nasty, nasty real life. I really appreciate the fans I do have, so keep reviewing and letting me know you're around, okay? Thanks!

Summary: An AU version of the events after 'The Weight of the World.'

Rating: PG-13

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The tension in the hotel grew, slowly but steadily, over the next few days. Dawn was getting ready to go to school at the beginning of the next week, and more anxious about it than she would let on, the result being a snappy and tired teen. Buffy took Spike and went patrolling some nights, but other nights she would catch Angel's worried expression, sigh, and stay home. Spike usually grabbed a weapon and stomped out the door, rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath, when she did that.

Finally, the morning came, and Dawn pulled herself tiredly out of bed. Buffy had offered to stay home the night before, instead of patrolling, but Dawn had promised it was fine if she went out, and Cordelia drove her to school in the morning. Buffy was going to come get her in the afternoon, and she figured that was when she might actually need her sister's support, anyway.

The blond lump sticking out from under a single sheet on the bed opposite Dawn moved a little, and Buffy poked her head out, bleary-eyed. "Getting ready to go?" She asked Dawn.

"Yeah." Dawn grabbed the clothes she was planning on wearing from the closet-- a black mini-skirt and teal-blue halter top, with the leather jacket Anya had give her and a pair of low-heeled boots. Quickly pulling them on, she took a few trial steps on her recently un-splinted foot, testing out the heels, and then grinned. "I was hoping I could do that," She told Buffy. "I wasn't sure. But I didn't want to go to my first day of school in sneakers."

Buffy smiled back, well aware of the necessity to be properly clothed in a new environment. "Looks good, Dawnie. I'll see you this afternoon. Are you sure it's really okay if I don't get up?"

Dawn looked up and down her sister's limp body and exhausted face with an incredulous expression. "Yeah, because you _could_ actually get up if I changed my mind?" She shook her head. "It's fine, Buffy, I promise." Adjusting her stride to accommodate the boot-heels, she quickly got the hang of it once more, and walked out into the lobby.

She didn't see anyone as she stepped into the bathroom and washed her face before she put on lipgloss and a little bit of mascara, but she wasn't sure she wanted to, either. It was seven am on the first day of school in a new city, and she was jittery enough without having to try and reassure more people that she was fine.

When she was done brushing her teeth, washing her face and applying her makeup, she took a deep breath, adjusted her stance until she thought it looked confident, and headed for the kitchen.

Not everyone was around the table-- but almost. Cordy was there, sipping coffee and looking amazing, as usual, with Wesley at her side, already poring over what looked to be another ancient book. Gunn sat on her other side, shoveling donuts into his face and gulping coffee, but he smiled and raised his hand in greeting. Dawn smiled back, and took the seat on the other side of the table, just as Spike walked in, looking as tired as she was sure her sister felt.

"Spike! You didn't have to get up... you and Buffy were out late last night, I told her she could sleep in."

He shrugged and grinned, heading for the fridge. "I know. But I had to see my Niblet off on the way to school, didn't I?"

Dawn got up and hugged him quickly, and he hugged her back despite the surprised look on his face. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, Lil' Bit. Anytime."

He drew back, and his eyes caught on her outfit. "You're not planning on wearing that, are you?" He asked.

Dawn looked up and down herself, looking for anything out of place. "Yeah..." She answered slowly. "I was."

"Well, you can't!" Spike was adamant.

Dawn put her hips on her hands in a challenge. "Why not?"

"Because... because that skirt is too short and that shirt is too low and you're too young!"

The teenager rolled her eyes. "I've worn outfits just like this, all summer."

"But now you're going to school! Do you know what that means, Niblet? It means horny, naughty teenage boys are going to be staring at you all day!"

Dawn smirked. "That was kind of what I was hoping for."

"Go change." Spike actually looked like he thought he was going to win this argument. 

"No." Dawn was just as stubborn as he was, she was absolutely sure.

"I mean it. You're not going out in that!"

"When did you become my parent?" Instantly, Dawn wished she hadn't said that, but Spike didn't seem to be bothered by it.

"Since your sister isn't up to see what you're wearing!"

"She saw. She said I looked good."

Spike spluttered. "Well, you're still not going out looking like that! She doesn't know what goes on inside teenage boys' ugly little minds!"

Dawn rolled her eyes, and turned away from the vampire. "Cordy?"

Cordy looked up, traced her eyes over her, and shrugged. "Personally, I could never get away with wearing that color. But it looks good on you."

Dawn turned back to the vampire. "See? Cordelia thinks I look good, too."

Spike stalked around her and up to the Seer's side. "You really think she should be allowed out in that?" He asked in his best menacing tone.

Cordy, totally accustomed to Angel's anger, ignored the tone in his voice and shrugged. "Why not?"

"Because there's not enough material there to cover... _anything!_"

Cordy laughed. "Please. She'll look just like every other girl there."

"Well, maybe she shouldn't!"

Cordy turned away from the vampire. "Dawn, you can wear whatever you want to school. Spike, get lost, I'm trying to read the paper."

Dawn turned her nose up in the air and went back to refrigerator. Exasperated, Spike grabbed his blood and downed it cold, wrinkling his nose as he did so. He then stalked over the table and collapsed in a chair, glaring daggers at Cordelia's head. With the oblivion of someone who had long hours of practice under her belt, she ignored him.

Finally, Dawn poured herself a bowl of cereal, which she then proceeded to scarf down in under two minutes, and dropped the bowl into the sink. "Where are the pups?" She asked the table.

Wesley didn't raise his head, but pointed up. "Angel's bedroom," Gunn helped out, grinning. "You've got to see it."

Curious, Dawn bounded up the steps to the second floor and knocked on Angel's door. "Mm-uhm," came the reply, sleepily, and Dawn opened the door. There, lying on the queen bed, on either side of Angel, were Cody and Cassidy, equally asleep with their heads on their paws. Dawn grinned.

"C'mon, guys," she called softly. "Breakfast!"

The excitement in her voice woke them up, and they bounded off the bed and over to her, Cody panting and slobbering, Cassidy yawning widely and following behind. Dawn smiled at her, and petted her brother's head. "Late night, girl?" She knew that, even after the short period of time they'd had to get attached to them, sometimes the dogs laid by the front door until Buffy and Spike came back from patrol.

Dawn led the dogs back downstairs, closing Angel's door on the way, and poured their food into the bowls in the corner of the kitchen. "Eat up," she told them, but they both had their noses in their dishes before she could finish reminding them.

Grabbing the backpack she'd put together the night before from her bedroom, Dawn went back to the kitchen and grabbed Cordy. "Time to go," she told her. Walking around the table, she hugged a still-scowling Spike and kissed his cheek. "I'll be fine," she promised. "And I won't let any boys stare at me." She giggled.

Spike scowled harder for a moment, then met her eyes. "Have a good day, Niblet."

"I'll try," she promised. "See you later."

"I'll be here. Unless they let school run until after sunset, now?"

Dawn giggled again, and shook her head. "Nope. Buffy's coming to pick me up at three-fifteen, so we should be home by three-thirty."

"Okay." He yawned. "I'm going back to bed."

Dawn nodded. "You should. You shouldn't have gotten up in the first place." She frowned at him.

He put his hands up, smiling. "I know, I know. Buffy and I were out all night and we should sleep."

Dawn nodded. "You'll get sloppy if you don't. And I'm not letting my sister go patrolling with a sloppy, sleep-deprived vampire for backup."

"Interesting which one of those things actually bothers you, Niblet. Not the fact that I'm a vampire, but the fact that I might be sloppy or sleep-deprived."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I know. God, my life is weird." She missed the fleeting look of pain that flashed over Spike's face when she said that. Then she thwapped him on the shoulder lightly and glared at him. "And hey! Way to change the subject!"

He grinned. "I'll sleep, I promise."

"Good. Now, Cordy and I have to go, I guess." She glanced at her watch. "We might be late anyway. Hopefully they let you do that on the first day."

Cordy nodded. "They do. Nobody can find their classrooms the first day, anyway. But we do need to leave."

Dawn nodded once more to Spike, and then to Wesley and Gunn as they looked up from their various reading materials. "Bye."

"Good-bye, Dawn."

"Kick ass, Dawnie!"

"I know, I know. I'll sleep."

Dawn grinned, and followed Cordelia out of the lobby and towards the car.

The bustling mass of the school was fairly overwhelming, just as Dawn had thought it would be. As Cordelia pulled up to the drop-off line and stopped, the teenager took a minute to just watch the endless stream of people hustling by before she opened her door.

"Thanks, Cordy."

"No problem. I'll see you later."

Dawn nodded, then reluctantly heaved her body out of the car. She felt as though she was being swallowed by the crowds as she fought her way into them and then walked with the streams of kids, staring at her map.

It didn't take her as long as she thought it would to find her first class, and after that, she asked people where the various rooms were. As huge as the campus seemed on first appraisal, everybody but the freshmen seemed to know where everything was, so Dawn figured she'd learn, too.

It was passing in the halls between second and third period that Dawn saw Kent, surrounded by friends and moving swiftly like all the other upperclassmen, sure of his destination.

Dawn melted into the sidewalls of lockers and waited. She hadn't thought that Kent would be one of the mega-popular people, she'd never been friends with any of them. In fact, in Sunnydale, the popular people tended to tease her and her group of friends rather mercilessly. She hoped that Kent wouldn't see her, knowing that the alternative, him seeing her and then pretending not to, would be worse.

Instead, though, Kent caught her eye and swiftly brought everybody to a halt. "Hey!" He called out, and Dawn almost looked behind her for whoever he was talking to before realizing that that would look mega-dorkish.

"Hey," She responded hesitantly. "It's... it's good to see somebody I recognize."

Kent grinned and walked a little closer. "Guys, Dawn Summers. She's new here, from Sunnydale." They all nodded their heads and said hello, and Dawn looked around her.

"Dawn, this is Chris, Alex, Taylor and Shawn," Kent pointed out. "We're various jocks, but I promise we don't belong to the stereotype." Right then, one of them, Dawn thought it was Alex, burped loudly, and Kent winced, then smiled apologetically. "All the time."

Dawn smiled, glad to see that the only person whose face she recognized wasn't ignoring her, but also a little overwhelmed by the fact that the mega-popular crowd was talking to her, civilly. "How-" she started to speak, but the bell cut her off. She glanced up at the clock and frowned. "I'd better get going."

Kent nodded. "Sure. Meet us in the lunchroom at lunch?" He smiled. "Imagine that. We're going to eat lunch, in the lunch room." He paused. "We'll have some more people for you to meet, some girls, too."

Dawn nodded thankfully, glad that she wasn't going to have to spend lunch alone in the corner with her books. "Great."

With a last nod, Kent took off, his buddies following him. Dawn wondered briefly what she was getting into, trying to befriend the guy who seemed to be the leader of a large group of the popular people, but then she decided that if she'd caught their eye, she wasn't going to ignore the benefits that came with it.

Heading off to her next class in the opposite direction from the way the guys had gone, Dawn smiled a little, thinking that maybe school wouldn't suck as bad as it had seemed at first.

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